Dictionary of Gestures: Expressive Comportments and Movements in Use around the World

by François Caradec, Philippe Cousin (Illustrator), Chris Clarke (Translator)

An illustrated guide to more than 850 gestures and their meanings around the world, from a nod of the head to a click of the heels.Gestures convey meaning with a flourish. A vigorous nod of the head, a bold jut of the chin, an enthusiastic thumbs-up: all speak louder than words. Yet the same gesture may have different meanings in different parts of the world. What Americans understand as the "A-OK gesture," for example, is an obscene insult in the Arab world. This volume is the reference book we didn't know we needed--an illustrated dictionary of 850 gestures and their meanings around the world. It catalogs voluntary gestures made to communicate openly--as distinct from sign language, dance moves, involuntary "tells," or secret handshakes--and explains what the gesture conveys in a variety of locations. It is organized by body part, from top to bottom, from head (nodding, shaking, turning) to foot (scraping, kicking, playing footsie).We learn that "to oscillate the head while gently throwing it back" communicates approval in some countries even though it resembles the headshake of disapproval used in other countries; that "to tap a slightly inflated cheek" constitutes an erotic invitation when accompanied by a wink; that the middle finger pointed in the air signifies approval in South America. We may already know that it is a grave insult in the Middle East and Asia to display the sole of one's shoe, but perhaps not that motorcyclists sometimes greet each other by raising a foot. Illustrated with clever line drawings and documented with quotations from literature (the author, Fran�ois Caradec, was a distinguished and prolific historian of literature, culture, and humorous oddities, as well as a novelist and poet), this dictionary offers readers unique lessons in polylingual meaning.

Genres: Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Membre de L’Oulipo, régent « toponome et celtipète » du Collège de Pataphysique, auteur de biographies de référence de Lautréamont, d’Alfred Jarry, de Raymond Roussel, d’Alphonse Allais, de Willy et de Jane Avril, François Caradec était l’un des spécialistes français de la bande dessinée, et cultivait pastiches et mystifications de tout ordre.

Il suivit de près la création de l’Ouvroir de Bande dessinée Potentielle (Oubapo).

Il fut aussi, avec Jacques Jouet, Paul Fournel et Hervé Le Tellier, de l'Oulipo, l’un des protagonistes de l'émission de radio « Des Papous dans la tête » de France-Culture.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weird and interesting exploration into the world of gestures. A great reference for writers & artists! I would have loved it more if they had updated with some modern gestures/meanings.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not as good a book as I hoped it would be.  Like many people, I tend to be a very expressive speaker who uses a lot of gestures when I communicate, not least because I am often concerned that people do not fully understand the words that are coming out of my mouth or what I mean by them.  I suspect this is likely to be a common problem.  Still, one would think that a book about gestures with loving and humorous illustrations would be an easy book to be among the best books I had written for a while, and while it was certainly okay and interesting, the book wasn't quite as good as I would have hoped, and there are definitely some reasons for that.  Some of the reasons include the French biases of the author, as well as his obsession with obscene gestures and implications of homosexuality, and the fact that he fails to get some basic gestures in use among contemporary Americans right.  Still, if you like gestures there is certainly much to appreciate here.

This book is a bit more than 300 pages long and is divided into 37 chapters.  The author begins his discussion with a discourse on the beauty of gestures.  After that the author spends almost half of the book discussing gestures involving various parts of the head (1), including the temples (2), the ear (3), the forehead (4), the eyebrows and eyelashes (5), the eye (6), the nose (7), the mouth (8), the lips (9), the tongue (10), the teeth (11), the cheeks (12), and the chin (13).  After that the author moves on to discuss gestures involving the neck (14), shoulders (15), armpits (16), arm (17), forearm (18), elbow (19), writ (20), fingernails (21), hand (22) and fist (22.5), both hands (23), hand to hand (24), thumb alone (25) and no alone (25.5), index finger (26), middle finger (27), ring finger (28), and pinkie (29).  He also provides gestures involving the torso (30), chest (31), hips (32), waist and stomach (33), buttocks (34), groin, genitals, and thighs (35), knees and legs (36), and the foot (37), after which there are a bibliography, image credits, and an index.  Among the various gestures, there are usually pictures or photos included that indicate the gesture as well as a description about what it means in various cultures, where the author spends some time discussing the ambiguity of gestures and how they can mean wildly different things depending on the culture one sees them in.

It is unclear exactly what message the illustrator was trying to send with the pictures.  The gestures of this book are illustrated, and in at least some of the cases the illustrator appears to be wanting to send a message by referring to specific people.  In other cases there are photographs of gestures, such as George H.W. Bush's wave or the supposedly "personal" "unique gesture" of Queen Elizabeth II's wave, only one of the most highly imitated waves around.  This book definitely shows some odd interests by the author when it comes to gestures, including an alarmingly large number of gestures that threaten sodomy or the evil eye.  When this interest of the author's is juxtaposed with his interest in gestures that are part of children's games, the book as a whole takes on a much creepier angle than it was probably meant to do.  There is clearly insight that can be gained by this book, but the way that the author chooses to write about the subject of gestures makes this a more awkward and uncomfortable book than I honestly expected to read, and it is likely that many other readers will find the author's focus on certain matters to be uncomfortable and a bit off-putting.

[Leigh Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was originally published in French in 2005, then released in English translation in 2018, clearly without any fact-checking.

There are glaring inaccuracies, most notably the ASL sign for “I love you” (p. 243). It’s described as (with a drawing to match): “the hand raised, the thumb, index, and ring fingers extended, the other two fingers folded down.” This is a near-impossible handshape to replicate. The sign for ILY is the thumb, index, and pinky fingers extended, with the middle and ring fingers folded down.

The vast majority of entries lack specificity and nuance. It’s not really a dictionary so much as a list of observations the author has made on his travels, and even that he’s fairly reticent on in the introduction.

As a (contemporary) reference, this isn’t particularly useful, although I do see the value of having documentation (though again, there are issues with accuracy). This seems more like a gift book you get someone so they can idly flip through it once on Christmas morning and then put on a shelf to collect dust, or leave out for a mischievous middle school boy to find since it’s full of the kinds of vulgarities they seem to always come across somehow anyway. Some interesting stuff, yes, but nothing really substantial, unless you’re Mr. Bean going on holiday and need to avoid offending the locals.

[Kevin Demel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book with lots of great images to show what is being described. Could put this in a review to aid recall.