# History of the handshake **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 14, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256 "2003-03-14T04:11:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![indiboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d2c977/32.png) [@indiboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indiboy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/1 "2003-03-14T04:11:31Z")
I’m doing a documentary on the history of the handshake, do you know where the handshake started? Do you know the history behind any of the African American handshakes? Do you have the names of any experts I might contact. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/2 "2003-03-14T04:35:27Z")
IIRC, the handshake was originated by tribes in Africa as a way to communicate (between different tribes) on a meeting that “Hey, nice to meet you, I’m unarmed.” As most people are right handed, and thus wield weapons with their right hand, it was a friendly way to say “We come in peace.” Don’t ask me for a cite. It was a verbal thing I heard. . . Tripler Now the origins of the current military salute, I can dig up a cite on. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/3 "2003-03-14T05:29:35Z")
The romans did something like that too. They wore togas, which could conceal weapons easily. The hand shake was a way to loosen weapons from the arms, in an attempt to disarm people. This is according to the discovery channel. Ficer67 ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/4 "2003-03-14T07:40:56Z")
As a sidebar to this topic, it is also where the word “sinister” got its evil connotations. In ancient Latin _dexter_ referred to “right”, as in right-handedness (also as in dexterous) and _sinister_ merely meant “left” as in left-handedness. The word sinister became tainted with negative shadings when Romans noticed that a left-handed person could shake hands with you and still slip you a dirk, all the while restraining your own sword hand. Rather nasty, back when swords were the equivalent of a 9mm. To this day the stigma of left-handedness persists. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/5 "2003-03-14T13:58:07Z")
If you do make a documentary, I reccomend you think about the contrast between the handshake and the bow. I have been intrigued by the difference for years. Most historians regard the handshake as a meeting of equals, “Look, I offer you my sword-hand to grasp to show trust and good intentions.” However, the bow was used to signify subservience, “I lower myself before your superiority, and avert my eyes from your visage, to symbolize surrender to your will.” (loosely speaking). Also, the salute, has been claimed to go back all the way to Knights who raised their visor to show who they were to each other, but I think that’s guessing, most Knights would know who someone was by their livery and arms (By the time someone was close enough to recognize a face you’d be fairly sure to know if it was friend or foe. As if Knights would be trotting around the countryside with a helmut on and visor closed anyway, it was only done when needed). Or maybe it did start with raising visors but done symbolicly, I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/6 "2003-03-14T14:03:15Z")
if i remember correctly, the raising of the visor was more a signal of “i am ready to be ordered since i can now see and hear you better” thing. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/7 "2003-03-14T17:28:01Z")
Handshakes are extremely unhygienic. Not to sound like a compulsive obsessive handwasher, but I felt some sympathy for a Royal I once saw having to do the handshake thing with an endless line of remarkably unwashed looking people. So many people don’t wash their hands after going to the lavatory. Or might have just been picking their nose or ear. Or might have just licked their fingers. Or touched something nasty. Or shaken hands with someone else unclean. Of course in much of this part of the world, no one would EVER shake with the left (as one armed people have to do, or those with a broken right wrist) because it is used precisely for unhygienic tasks, such as a\*se cleaning. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/8 "2003-03-14T18:16:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BMalion \* > … Also, the salute, has been claimed to go back all the way to Knights who raised their visor to show who they were to each other, but I think that’s guessing, most Knights would know who someone was by their livery and arms … Methinks the salute could be more easily traced much further back to the tradition of tugging on one’s forelock (of hair) in order to show obeisance. This may have been an alternative to doffing one’s hat for those without hats. Let’s ask **Tripler** to rejoin the fray and give us the low down on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-the-handshake/161256/9 "2003-03-14T21:57:37Z")
Somewhere on these boards someone posted a comment about an old fellow living in the 20th Century who as a child shook hands with an old man who had in turn shaken hands with Thomas Jefferson. I thought it was a pretty neat story, but cannot verify it without more information.