# Surrenduring and hands in the air

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrenduring-and-hands-in-the-air/127081>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 5, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrenduring-and-hands-in-the-air/127081 "2002-09-05T03:46:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrenduring-and-hands-in-the-air/127081/1 "2002-09-05T03:46:16Z")

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Its just about universally recognized that having one’s hands raised high above the head away from the body means:  
“I Surrender!”

This is to clearly signal to the Superior Force that the Surrenderee  
has his hands in plain view AND far enough away from the body to reach for a possibly concealed weapon.

But when was this gesture first recognizably accepted?  
Renaissance? Middle Ages? Classical Period?

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**Author:** ![peasea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc79bd/32.png) [@peasea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peasea)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrenduring-and-hands-in-the-air/127081/2 "2002-09-05T03:59:12Z")

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Completely unsupported, but I’ve heard that waving hello comes from approaching medieval knights putting their sword hand up at a distance to show they’re not holding a weapon. Presumably, this is closely related to the sign of surrender.

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**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surrenduring-and-hands-in-the-air/127081/3 "2002-09-05T10:18:39Z")

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Not only does it show that you (probably) don’t have a weapon, but it also keeps the hands in a position where it’s easy to see any movement and where they’ll find it hard to grab a concealed weapon (excepting Bruce Willis, of course 🙂 ).

To illustrate the “probably” above, I tried to find a link to the “Groin gun” in From Dusk 'till Dawn, but no joy.