airquotes

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Mar 09, 2006 at 10:40:15AM +0000, neil wrote:
> OK, so we're all familiar with 'airguitar', but -- until coming across the
> following -- I didn't realise there was a word for making 'digital
> quotemarks' while speaking.

It's in OED, with a first quote from 1989 and the following wonderful
bracketed example:

1927 Science 8 July 38/2 Some years ago I knew a very
intelligent young woman who used to inform us that her ?bright
sayings?..were not original, by raising both hands above her
head with the first and second fingers pointing upward. Her
fingers were her ?quotation marks? and were very easily
understood.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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