[Ads-l] new gesture

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Mon Jun 15 10:59:37 UTC 2015


Maybe the heart gesture originated as a symbol of the word "love" in the
game of charades.

Which reminds me. The now familiar (or obsessive, at least on TV)
thumb-pinky gesture for to "telephone" seemed quite new to me at some point
in (perhaps) the 1980s.

Was it introduced by some comedian? (Surely not Bob Newhart: he used a real
phone.)

JL


On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 12:55 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: new gesture
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I don't know that I've seen it before, though it seemed transparent
> enough--but of course I was primed by your e-mail.
>
> Here's a video from February 18 of this year with the sign at about 0:30
> in:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fujstd-Bmo
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
> Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home
>
> > Jonathan Lighter <mailto:wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > June 14, 2015 at 3:56 AM
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: new gesture
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At the end of this Tire Rack commercial from last year is a "breaking
> > heart" gesture that I've never seen before. The first few times I saw it,
> > I couldn't even figure out what was going on.
> >
> > Watch the girl on the left.
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ott-SmHYYso
> >
> > JL
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
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