In England the lion is called “king of the jungle”. Apparently in Germany he’s “king of the desert”. In reality of course lions live on the savannah, so kinda half-way between.
Ah no, I thought he meant fingers up. Which we did copy from the Italians; we’ve spent the last 21 centuries or so hopping back and forth from there to here and here to there so the cultural exchange is pretty much continuouos.
It is UK and Europe only, though. Not the rest of Europe AFAIK.
Huh…is this one (at least formerly) Canadian, too? I remember a scene in an Anne of Green Gables sequel-movie set in WWI featuring something like this.
Carlos Hathcock, however, used the Cyrano de Bergerac version, of course. 
Of perhaps more significance is the finger he is pointing to his eye with, given some of the more popular American hand gestures. In the sci-fi classic Robot Jox, Achilles does something similar towards Alexander (with just the middle finger), pissing the guy off greatly. It’s just a discrete way to give someone the finger without making it obvious to others.
Good point - I hadn’t noticed that before.
That said, I’ve never seen it done in real life. It may very well have a connection to the “Evil Eye” and it could easily have been something the actor/writers/director came up with for Aliens to add a bit of unexplained depth to the characters. Sort of a thing that they would get and we would not because we’re not one of them.
Which, BTW, is something that you’ll see in largely any group that is exclusive for any reason, be they military or technical or academic or what not.
A quick search shows that Al Matthews, who played Apone, was a six-year Marine veteran, an E-5 and a decorated Vietnam vet. So that supports the theory that it could be an actual military gesture.
Lots of Americans give this as their “peace” symbol. Justin Bieber even does it in photos. I guess either everyone around him is ignorant or no one has the heart to tell Bieber he’s been technically giving the finger to all of his fans for years.
Also, J.K. Rowling must not have known the slightest thing about honey badgers when she gave that animal to Hufflepuff.
It’s not a matter of ignorance. It just doesn’t have that meaning over here.
She don’t care.
Honey badgers? I thought Hufflepuff had just plain *badger *badgers.
That’s right: the European badger (Meles meles), rather than the honey badger (Mellivora capensis), or indeed the American badger (Taxidea taxus).
Mushroom mushroom?
Not quite a symbol but to waffle here means to talk a lot, to babble, but in the US it means to say one thing then say its opposite.