OK gesture
The OK gesture, OK sign or ring gesture is a gesture performed by joining the thumb and index finger in a circle, and holding the other fingers straight or relaxed away from the palm. Commonly used by scuba divers, it signifies "I am OK" or "Are you OK?" when underwater. In most English-speaking countries it denotes approval, agreement, and that all is well or "okay". In other contexts or cultures, similar gestures may have different meanings including those that are negative, offensive, financial, numerical, devotional, political, or purely linguistic.
Positive denotations
Classical use
Ring gestures, formed by forefinger and thumb with remaining digits extended, appear in Greece at least as early as the fifth century BCE, and can be seen on painted vases as an expression of love, with thumb and forefinger mimicking kissing lips. When proffered by one person toward another in Ancient Greece, the gesture was of one professing their love for another, and the sentiment was conveyed more in the touching of fingertips than in the ring that they formed. As an expression of assent and approval, the gesture can be traced back to first century Rome where the rhetorician Quintilian is recorded as having used it. Quintilian's chironomy prescribed variations in context for the gesture's use during specific points of a speech: to open, give warning or praise or accusation, and then to close a declamation.Contemporaneously, the sign appeared throughout the Buddhist and Hindu diasporas as a symbol of inner perfection. Ethologist Desmond Morris posits that the joined thumb-and-forefinger communicates precision in grasping something literally or figuratively, and that the shape formed by their union represents the epitome of perfection—a circle—hence the gesture's transcultural message that things are "exactly right" or "perfect".
In Naples, the gesture has been long used to symbolize love and matrimony, as was custom in neighboring Greece, but specifically with the palm upturned, while the gesture made with a downturned palm represents a hand holding the scales of justice. Across Italy, the gesture remained in use as one for making points in conversation when moved about to express discursive precision, but when held still in an upright position with fingers jutting skyward, it became an emblem of perfection.
Early records of the sign's usage in the English-speaking world date to British physician-philosopher John Bulwer's 1644 Chirologia, "The naturall language of the hand composed of the speaking motions, and discoursing gestures thereof." Among the many hand gestures detailed by Bulwer, he described one as "The top of the fore-finger moved to joyne with the naile of the Thumbe that's next to it, the other fingers in remitter," and said that it was "opportune for those who relate, distinguish, or approve".
"OK"
By the early 19th century in the United States, the gesture was affiliated with the letters "O" and "K". While it is not known exactly how the OK gesture and the corresponding verbal expression coalesced, the English professor Allen Walker Read dates the expression's rise in usage to an 1839 humor piece in the Boston Morning Post describing the expression "o.k." as meaning "all correct", suggesting comically misspelled initials, at a time when acronyms for misspelled words were in vogue. Several other broadsheets in Boston, New York and Philadelphia ran with the expression in their own columns, some with misspellings of "all correct" such as oll korrect, bringing the phrase into the vernacular of American English.The following year Democrats began using the phrase and its accompanying gesture in support of president Martin Van Buren's campaign for reelection. A native of Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was widely known by his nickname, "Old Kinderhook", whose initials, "O.K.", were steadily gaining traction as an expression of approval. In New York City, fans of Van Buren formed the O.K. Democratic Club and used the gesture as its sign, with the slogan of "O.K." bearing the double meaning in the club's catchphrase, "Old Kinderhook is all correct." Both phrase and gesture made their way into newspapers around the country via political cartoons, thus further spreading the expression. After Van Buren's defeat to William Henry Harrison, O.K. was briefly satirized as meaning "Owful Kalamity" or "Owful Katastrophe".
As a gesture, its denotation is more positive than the word "OK", which may mean a thing is merely mediocre, satisfactory at only the most basic level, as in, "The food was OK." The gesture is commonly understood as a signal of approval, and is sometimes used synonymously with the Western thumbs up gesture.
Scuba diving
In the communication used by scuba divers, the OK sign is specific in its meaning that "everything is OK" as regulated by the Recreational Scuba Training Council. Divers are taught to always use this sign and not the thumbs up gesture because the latter means that a diver needs to ascend. The gesture is also used as a means of checking in, with one diver using it to ask another, "Everything OK?" and the response meaning, "Yes, everything is OK."At distances where the standard OK gesture may be hard to see, divers use larger signals as an alternative, either with one hand atop the head and the elbow bent out to the side, or with both hands touching above the head so that the arms form an "O" for "OK". This full-body gesture is also used as "OK" in Japan where the single-handed gesture denotes monetary transactions instead of meaning "OK". This two-armed OK gesture was added to Unicode in 2010 as and became part of Emoji 1.0 in 2015.
Money
In Japan, the one-handed ring gesture is used to symbolize money, and in this context the fingers' circular shape represents a coin. Sometimes the sign is used to avoid the verbal awkwardness in talking about or asking for money. In other contexts, it can be used to imply a bribe or other illicit financial transactions, or signal an invitation to enter into business negotiations.In other parts of the world the gesture can also express money, financial transactions, wealth or the priciness of an item. Records of the gesture being used to remark on a person's wealth or status are documented as practiced in Mexico during the late nineteenth century.
Mudra
In yoga, the gesture is known as chin mudra when the palm is face down, or jnana mudra when the palm is face up or held in other positions, such as in front of the heart. Some schools of yoga use chin and jnana mudra interchangeably, while others claim that "the former produces a subtle feeling of rootedness, the latter a sense of lightness," or that jnana "the passive receiving position" while chin "is an actively giving position". In these mudras the middle, ring, and little fingers represent the three gunas of rajas, tamas, and sattva which, when in harmony, unite ātman and brahman, or the individual soul and universal soul. The pressing together of the thumb and forefinger represents that union—or "yoga"—of consciousness. In Buddhism the gesture is called vitarka mudra and is used to emphasize the meaning of words.Sign language
Most sign languages combine hand shapes, movement, and position in relation to the rest of body, as well as additional body language and facial expression. As with other hand signs, the OK gesture may be combined with other elements to convey numerous meanings across multiple sign languages.Monastic signing
Dating back to the tenth century in Europe, the gesture of thumb and forefinger forming a ring with the remaining fingers extended was used in a set of standardized ecclesiastical signs employed by Christian monks under vows of silence to represent numerous religious rites and objects. For example, when held out in front of oneself the gesture represented an oblation to God. When touched to the mouth it meant taking a meal. When added to the open-palmed sign for "book" it specified a hymnal, and the sign's O-shape represented the signing of an "O" that began many hymns. If the thumb and forefinger took hold of a specific part of one's own clothing or body such as the hood of a cowl, a lock of hair, or skin on the left hand, the gesture could stand for things as diverse as "monk" or "horse" or "parchment".Plains Indian Sign Language
In Plains Indian Sign Language, the gesture signifies the Sun when held up in front of the face or moved in an arc following the Sun's track. When held up to the sky and peered through, it is the sign for high noon. A PISL primer printed in an 1888 issue of the Canadian residential school newspaper Our Forest Children specifies that the left hand be used to indicate sunrise and the right for sunset. A more complicated series of movements with hands held in the gesture as if drawing a thread or stretching an elastic can signify death, or more specifically, "After a long time, you die."American Sign Language
In modern-day American Sign Language the gesture can mean many different things depending on how it is applied. The pinching action of the thumb-and-forefinger frequently represents something small. For example, the sign for "housefly" is made by making the gesture mimic a fly buzzing around. In ASL the gesture can also communicate a selection of some sort: When moved from one side to the other as if picking something up and placing it down, it means "appoint". When the joined thumb and forefinger of the gesture are placed into a hole made by the opposite hand, it means "vote". The sign for "elect" is formed by making the signs for "vote" and "appoint" in succession.Fingerspelling
In systems of fingerspelling used in sign languages, the handshape of joined thumb and forefinger represents various letters. The American manual alphabet reserves it for the letter F, while in both Irish and French Sign Languages, it represents the letter G. In fingerspellings that represent Cyrillic alphabetical systems, such as the Ukrainian manual alphabet, the gesture represents the vowel O and reflects that letter's shape. Similarly, the Korean manual alphabet uses the gesture for the Hangul letter to reflect its pronunciation in spoken Korean. In yubimoji, Japanese Sign Language's manual syllabary, the gesture is the syllable.Various fingerspelling systems may call for other specific features of the gesture beyond its joined thumb-and-forefinger with remaining fingers entended. For example, the ring in the sign for in JSL is slightly tapered rather than rounded.