Such as when you go “darn-it, shucks!!” and snap your fingers in a curving swoop, ending up in front of your chest?
Or expressing coy, humbled gratitude with a pigeon-toed kick at imaginary dirt.
Or winking, ffs!
Or crossing your fingers behind your back, which, correct me if I’m wrong (something that’s never ever ever ever happened to me here, btw), conveys not just lying, but also some other meaning, which temporarily escapes me.
Shit like that. Gestures that have to have some origin, and I hope someone here can provide some really juicy and possibly slightly morbid accounts into where any of these gestures might have derived from.
Even the bird-flip - had to have come from somewhere.
Or hanging a moon…I will be your unwanted friend if you can come up with the skinny on that one.
None of your questions are likely to have answers other than “popular culture” picked them out of actual human behaviour. It might be possible to trace their usage in movies, and say something about their popularity over time, but I suspect the source material would be too scarce, and it definitely would be a difficult search.
Before proceding, it is important to remember that gestures are highly culture-specific, and evolve within a culture or a language. For example, to an Arabic speaker, a single upward nod of the head means No, and a shake of the head means Not Understood. Gestures that we presume to be universal may only be used among English speaking people, maybe just in one country, and sometimes just in one subculture.
Some of those described by the OP, I’m nto even familiar with.
I’m going to speculate, without knowing, that most gestures originated with a single scene in theatrical performance, which worked in one play, and was copied by other directors. Motion pictures would have had a great deal of power to disseminate certain gestures, which were the only way to convey ideas in the pre-talkie era. I would be surprised if there were very many recognized gestures several centuries ago. If there were, it is doubtful that we would know about them. Most are quite recently coined. In fact, most of those in current usage did not exist when I was growing up 60 years ago. Like the spread thumb and pinky up next to the ear, meaning “Phone me”.