{"id":1048,"date":"2019-07-22T14:10:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T14:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/?p=1048"},"modified":"2021-12-19T15:57:38","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T15:57:38","slug":"why-do-we-give-the-thumps-up-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/why-do-we-give-the-thumps-up-sign\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Why Is It We Give The ‘Thumps Up’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brief history as to why we give the ‘thumbs up’ sign!<\/h3>\n
\"Man

Image credit: Kues\/Shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s widely accepted that the \u2018thumbs up\u2019 gesture originates from the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome. It was used by spectators to decide the fate of the losing gladiators. However, if you thought the \u2018thumbs-up\u2019 sign from the crowd meant that the combatant would be spared then you\u2019d be wrong. In Roman times, thumbs-down, actually signified \u2018sword down\u2019. This meant that the crowd thought that the losing gladiator had given a worthy performance and should thus be spared to fight another day.<\/p>\n

It was not until 1872, that the \u2018thumbs-up\u2019 and \u2018thumbs-down\u2019 gestures might represent respective approval and disapproval came to public awareness.\u00a0 This was when Jean-L\u00e9on G\u00e9r\u00f4me\u2019s painting \u2018Pollice Verso\u2019 first went on public display. The \u2018thumbs-down\u2019 gesture of the crowd in the artist\u2019s popular picture was interpreted in the 19th century as a sign of disapproval. However, the Latin phrase \u2018pollice verso\u2019 simply means \u2018with a turned thumb\u2019.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s widely accepted that G\u00e9r\u00f4me got the gesture wrong. His painting shows the majority of the crowd giving the \u2018thumbs down\u2019 to the blooded triumphant gladiator. It would simply have not been an option at such an event to go against the will of the crowd. Academics before G\u00e9r\u00f4me also gave support to the theory that \u2018thumbs down\u2019 was a gesture that signalled the opponent should be spared.<\/p>\n

A More Recent Theory<\/h4>\n

In more recent times, G\u00e9r\u00f4me\u2019s mistake in his portrayal of ancient Rome has been greatly perpetuated by Hollywood. No more so than in Ridley Scott\u2019s blockbuster film, Gladiator. However, other schools of thought suggest that the origins of the thumbs-up gesture is actually very much much more recent.<\/p>\n

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) documents that the first positive known use of a \u201cthumbs-up\u201d was in 1917. This was documented in the popular book ‘Over the Top’. It was written by Arthur Guy Empey, an American who served in the British army during the First World War. He wrote in the book about his wartime experiences, describing that the ‘thumps up’ gesture was in common use by his British counterparts. The book states that; “Thumbs up, Tommy\u2019s expression which means \u2018everything is fine with me’.”<\/p>\n

During the 1930s, the gesture was occasionally mentioned in TIME magazine. The OED also mentions the fact that the “thumbs up” had been gaining in popularity during the Second World War. It\u2019s not entirely clear where the gesture passed over into American culture. However, it’s been speculated that it was used by pilots to communicate with their ground crew in pre-flight checks.<\/p>\n

Header image credit: Cookie Studio\/Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, why not check out more of the articles in the series by clicking the following link: Why do we…….?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A brief history as to why we give the ‘thumbs up’ sign!   It\u2019s widely accepted that the \u2018thumbs up\u2019 gesture originates from the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome. It was used by spectators to decide the fate of the losing gladiators. However, if you thought the \u2018thumbs-up\u2019 sign from the crowd meant that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":2629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[310],"tags":[574,572,573],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-why-do-we","tag-giving-the-thumps-up","tag-the-thumps-up","tag-thumps-up-sign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2631,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions\/2631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}