A few years ago, in an Esquire article about gestures, I saw a variation on this gesture. Hook the thumbnail behind your upper front teeth, and snap it forward. In France, claims the article, it means, “That’s so stupid, it makes my teeth hurt!”
In the opening sequence of Laverne and Shirley, Lenny or Squiggy is seen biting the heel of his hand. It seemed to express an effort to restrain his lust, or something like that.
Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground…
I was reading some “historical fiction”, set in Biblical Old Testament times, and while fiction’s certainly not an authoritative source, I remember several references to “making the sign of the fig”. It involved making a fist, but with the thumb sticking out between the index and middle finger. And it was always used as an insult. It seemed to imply that the “beneficiary” of the gesture was either a homosexual or really fond of his sheep. One frequent occasion for making the sign was before a battle - the general on one side of the battlefield would aim it toward the opposing general.
Only on the SDMB could a spontaneous Shakespeare quote-fest break out.
Bring’st it on, thou bitch!
Put up your bright swords, for the dew shall rust them.
Part, fools! Put up your swords, you know not what you do.
Part, fools! Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
Fie on you, Desmostylus, for beating me to the punch.
What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword, or manage it to part these men with me.
Dude, I am so biting my thumb at y’all.
I like to be in America
Okay by me in America
Everything free in America…
Oh, wait, I’m Canadian.
What? Drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all General Questions posters, and thee!
Have at thee, coward!
What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
–zzzzzzzzzip–
“Not that long sword, ho!”
::splort::
Interesting. The way I, and my office mate have heard it interpreted is that well, its a penis entering a vagina - think about it! And a fig is a rather suggestive shape as well…
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to dash its brains out, or to bite my thumb at thee, the multitudinous oceans incarnadine…
wait… that’s wrong, isn’t it?
'Fraid so. My office mate has the complete works of Shakespeare on his bookshelf, and as life’s outrageous fortune would have it, I’m in the office.
Damn, you’re quick on the draw with the complete works :D. Is
“To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do
come to Dunsinane,
But that the fear of something after death
Murders the innocent sleep,
Great nature’s second course,
And makes us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune
Than fly to others that we know not of.”
an accurate quote, then?