I seem to recall people doing the “OK” hand gesture more often when I was a teenager, say 20 years ago (I grew up in the Midwest US). I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen anyone doing it in at least a decade. It just seems to have gone out of fashion, perhaps replaced by the thumb’s-up. So a couple of questions:
Do you now, or have you ever, used this gesture?
In your parts, does it seem to be dying, or alive and well?
The linked image says it is a US/UK thing. If you are not in the US or UK, what does it mean in your location? I would guess Canadians would also use it as “OK”, but I don’t want to assume and run the risk of being pummeled on my next vacation.
I only use it ironically. If I have to convey OK non-verbally I’ll generally use the ‘thumbs-up’. But I don’t often have to do that, so the thumbs-up is also often done ironically. Sort of an exaggerated 1950s print-ad gesture, sometimes accompanied by ‘Aces!’
I’m from Spain and have seen it used in/by people from Latin America and Western Europe as well as USA and UK.
Mostly with both hands and arms raised, to people who were far enough that yelling “OK, GO!” would have brought the neighbors running, or across a window or somesuch.
It’s in OK health, not more popular than it was, not less. The “thumbs up” or other wide-arm gestures are easier to see clearly from those same distances.
It can also mean zero. A closed fist can mean zero as well, but in this case people begin by making a “counting with my fingers” sequence to keep the zero from being misunderstood as something else.
I’ve been wondering about this. I’m Canadian, almost 49. I used the “OK” sign to a young woman in my office a few weeks ago, and she had no idea what I meant.
My seven year old kid uses the thumbs up all the time, never “OK”. When I was a kid, I don’t remember ever using thumbs up to mean OK, but we would use it, with an aggressive upward movement, as the equivalent of giving the finger. I wonder if that was ever widespread, or just one of those little regional things.
The exotic connotation of “asshole!” sticks to it a little too much for me to use it unselfconsciously. I know that’s probably just me.
Here in BC, our liquor stores use plastic bags with the copy “Thanks for knowing your limit,” and the graphic of a big “O.K.” hand gesture. I always read this as a sarcastic “Thanks for knowing your limit, asshole.” Nice.
I’m married to a Brazilian woman, and it’s definitely inappropriate to give the OK sign down there (though the actual bad gesture is a variation of OK).
Thumbs-up is especially useful in Brazil, however. You can pull off the most amazingly buttheaded move in traffic and, as long as you give a broad smile out the window as you wave your extended “thumbs up,” nobody will be upset with you.
So, it’s not looking too good for the OK gesture. I wonder if things like this go in and out of fashion. Maybe 20 years from now, it will be back in vogue.
I hope someone with knowledge of Japanese culture will drop in to confirm/refute the assertion in the linked image that the symbol means “money” in Japan. I’d heard that it was vulgar in Brazil, but the Japanese meaning was new to me.
Ditto. Like when listening to the State of Union address tonight (is it tonight?) I will be guilty of the OK sign along with a raised eyebrow and “whatever you say pal”. And then my husband will say “you know he can’t hear you” and I’ll say “Don’t sully my anger with your reality”.
