# Universal symbols **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946 "2020-02-14T19:21:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/21 "2020-02-15T01:18:36Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > In some European countries they use the red circle without the diagonal line to indicate prohibited. That doesn’t sound right. The symbol you describe is the [mandatory sign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_sign) in some places. According to their map, a blue circle is the modern European symbol, but some places used a red circle with no diagonal historically (and maybe still do in places where the signs haven’t been replaced yet). It’s definitely not a prohibition sign. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/22 "2020-02-15T01:38:37Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The red octagon seems to be recognized as a “Stop” sign in most parts of the world. Not all, though. Where is it not used? I understood there were some places where they use some other symbol (older signs, perhaps), but also use the red octagon. Maybe I’m misremembering. At any rate, is it likely that people is such places would not recognize a stop sign just because they aren’t on the local roads? The Red Cross (suggested by Beckdawrek) is definitely one, although she got the colors backwards. I think it would be recognized even in countries where the local organization uses the Red Crescent. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/23 "2020-02-15T01:52:54Z")
In this age of SARS and Covid-19, I would hope that the biohazard symbol ☣ would be reasonably universal. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/24 "2020-02-15T01:54:44Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Where is it not used? I understood there were some places where they use some other symbol (older signs, perhaps), but also use the red octagon. Maybe I’m misremembering. At any rate, is it likely that people is such places would not recognize a stop sign just because they aren’t on the local roads? They probably would. I’m just CYA-ing against the pedants and any blanket declarations of absoluteness. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/25 "2020-02-15T02:02:36Z")
Fair enough, silenus. I’d still like to know what countries do not use the Stop sign. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/26 "2020-02-15T02:08:24Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > And male/female stick figures for segregated washrooms? > [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > I don’t think so. > The female one is usually shown with a skirt instead of pants. But in desert cultures where men wear long robes and women wear pantaloons, it isn’t distinctive. Or even a Scotsman in a kilt. > > Also, the female one is often shown with more/longer hair than the male. Is that universal in all cultures? Even so, why should two people figures (however you interpret their sex) necessarily represent _ **rooms** _? There’s a lot of cultural baggage with that symbol that is taken for granted, and isn’t necessarily universal: [ul] [li]Having a room in the first place.[/li][li]Having TWO rooms.[/li][li]The assumption that by necessity the two rooms must be segregated by gender . . .[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/27 "2020-02-15T02:23:59Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Fair enough, silenus. I’d still like to know what countries do not use the Stop sign. [These ones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign) ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/28 "2020-02-15T02:35:36Z")
How about simpler ideas? I think everybody might associate a crescent with ‘moon’, a circle with rays radiating around it for ‘sun’, a shape of a water droplet with ‘rain’ or maybe ‘water’ in general, some flames with ‘fire’. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/29 "2020-02-15T02:40:33Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > [These ones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign) In Ethiopia the stop sign looks like they’re [just saying “Hi” to you](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign#/media/File:Ethiopian_Stop_Sign.svg). ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/30 "2020-02-15T02:53:03Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > In Ethiopia the stop sign looks like they’re [just saying “Hi” to you](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign#/media/File:Ethiopian_Stop_Sign.svg). Warning: You Are Entering a High-Five Zone This thread reminds me of this from Gary Larson: [![](https://newbeautifulera.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/gary-larsen.png) ](https://newbeautifulera.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/gary-larsen.png) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/31 "2020-02-15T02:59:26Z")
Here is one of my favorite sites: [Symbols](https://www.symbols.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/32 "2020-02-15T09:36:31Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > That doesn’t sound right. The symbol you describe is the [mandatory sign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_sign) in some places. > > According to their map, a blue circle is the modern European symbol, but some places used a red circle with no diagonal historically (and maybe still do in places where the signs haven’t been replaced yet). It’s definitely not a prohibition sign. British road signs use a red circle without a slash to indicate prohibition. Except for the ones that do use a slash. Hey, we’re British, we’re not consistent about anything. See this [PDF](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/58170307ed915d61c5000000/the-highway-code-traffic-signs.pdf). The “no cycling” sign is a bike in a red circle with no slash, but the “no right turn” sign has the turn symbol in a circle with a slash. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/33 "2020-02-15T12:32:07Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > The “no cycling” sign is a bike in a red circle with no slash, but the “no right turn” sign has the turn symbol in a circle with a slash. Thanks, that’s exactly the example I was going to use. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/34 "2020-02-15T14:46:51Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I used to work for a company that shipped machinery in wooden cases all over the world. The standard sign for “This Way Up” is two arrows pointing up with a bar underneath. We discovered that in parts ob Africa it did not work - in fact it had the opposite effect. To a tribesman like a Zulu, a spear should never be left pointing up as that is a sign of aggression, so their natural inclination was to have them pointing down. Cite for this bullshit? Because that is still the standard sign for Way Up in South Africa, and I’ve never heard of this being a problem here. Not even for Zulu “tribesmen”. I’ve also never heard this “spears shouldn’t be pointing up” nugget of wisdom, either. Sounds made up. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/35 "2020-02-15T16:30:43Z")
> [@pakputeh](#): > > The word okay, symbolized as OK. I see it in Korean all the time, and am pretty sure almost any educated person around the world understands what it means. Oops…thought the post was about the sign, not the word. Nope. It’s considered offensive in some countries and recently associated with White Power. TL;DR Don’t use it as you don’t know how it will be taken. "While widespread use of the OK gesture has granted it an international connotation of assent, it also bears negative, vulgar, or offensive meanings in many regions of the world.[28] In contrast to Japan’s use of the expression to represent coins and wealth, the gesture’s “O” shape stands for “zero” meaning “worth nothing” in France and Tunisia.[23][29] In many Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Tunisia, and Greece, as well as in the Middle East, parts of Germany, and many parts of Latin America, the gesture may be interpreted as a vulgar expression resembling a human anus, referring to sex, either as an insult (“You are an asshole”), or a homophobic reaction to a symbol of homosexuality and the act of sodomy.[11] In Brazil it can be synonymous with giving someone the middle finger.[30][31] In Kuwait and other parts of the Arab world, this sign represents the evil eye and is used as a curse, sometimes in conjunction with verbal condemnation.[32][33][34]" "White power symbol In 2017, users on the message-board site 4chan[40][41][42] aimed to convince the media that the OK gesture was being used as a white power movement symbol.[40][43] According to The Boston Globe, users on 4chan’s /pol/ (“Politically Incorrect”) board were instructed in February 2017 to “flood Twitter and other social media websites…claiming that the OK hand sign is a symbol of white supremacy,” as part of a campaign dubbed “Operation O-KKK”.[37] The association of the gesture with white supremacy derived from the assertion that the three upheld fingers resemble a ‘W’ and the circle made with the thumb and forefinger resemble the head of a ‘P’, together standing for “White Power” (when performed with left hand).[44] While some members of the alt-right used the symbol after the launch of the 4chan campaign, it remained ambiguous whether or not it was being used to communicate genuine adherence to white supremacy, or with deliberately ironic motives.[45] According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL):" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK\_gesture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_gesture) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/36 "2020-02-15T16:41:43Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Even Winston Churchill couldn’t get it right - either V’ing for victory or telling you to get stuffed. I was thinking this one — [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Peace\_sign.svg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Peace_sign.svg) Not this one — [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Woman\_of\_Malaysia\_at\_the\_Spring\_Fest\_2009\_in\_Moscow%2C\_Russia.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Woman_of_Malaysia_at_the_Spring_Fest_2009_in_Moscow%2C_Russia.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/37 "2020-02-15T16:58:46Z")
I disagree that monetary symbols are universal as they require a level of literacy and ability to clearly differentiate between similar shapes. At a glance, I often mistake the symbol Korean Won symbol, ₩, for the Japanese ¥, which is also used for the Chinese yuan. Without context many monetary symbols look like English alphabets. The Euro symbol looks like an E, Pound like an L, Dollar like an S, Centavo like a C and probably many others. I helped a guy do an inventory of his Korean wife’s beauty shop and he insisted on listing everything as “product type - foreign words” despite my telling him what was obviously, to my eyes, Korean, Japanese or Chinese. Point being for those who will ask _what my point is_, is what is obvious to some, is not obvious to others and therefore not universal. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/38 "2020-02-15T17:00:24Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Not counting trademarks and those found on computer keyboards, what symbols can reasonably be considered universal? How about symbols from mathematics? Even if you exclude those found on computer keyboards (the Hindu-Arabic numerals, the equals sign, etc.), you still have things like π (pi), the infinity symbol, symbols for union and intersection, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/39 "2020-02-15T17:02:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > How about symbols from mathematics? Even if you exclude those found on computer keyboards (the Hindu-Arabic numerals, the equals sign, etc.), you still have things like π (pi), the infinity symbol, symbols for union and intersection, etc. I think _some_ mathematical symbols might be at the level of universal, but it would be ones widely used outside mathematics like “+” and “=” not things like union and intersection. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946/40 "2020-02-15T17:20:07Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > I disagree that monetary symbols are universal as they require a level of literacy and ability to clearly differentiate between similar shapes. At a glance, I often mistake the symbol Korean Won symbol, ₩, for the Japanese ¥, which is also used for the Chinese yuan. > > Without context many monetary symbols look like English alphabets. The Euro symbol looks like an E, Pound like an L, Dollar like an S, Centavo like a C and probably many others. > > I helped a guy do an inventory of his Korean wife’s beauty shop and he insisted on listing everything as “product type - foreign words” despite my telling him what was obviously, to my eyes, Korean, Japanese or Chinese. Point being for those who will ask _what my point is_, is what is obvious to some, is not obvious to others and therefore not universal. Yes, I know it’s difficult to differentiate between Korean, Japanese and Chinese, especially since Korean and Japanese writing is largely derived from Chinese Hanzi. My point is that my contention is that any symbol (which Hanzi originated as) is contextual and requires a common social knowledge and acceptance to be considered universal. What does + and - mean outside of mathematical equations? If I wrote - - - without a mathematical equation, am I saying dash, dash, dash or Chinese for one, one, one? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-symbols/847946.md?page=3)