The V sign, made with the index and middle finger parted to form a V could range in meaning from the number 2, Peace, Victory, or as an insult in certain countries depending on which way the palm is facing.
With the palm of the hand toward the signer, it is an insulting gesture in Ireland, New Zealand, UK, Australia, and maybe a couple of other places. With the back on the hand facing the signer is more of a sure bet not to offend someone.
But how did it become an insult?
One story suggests that during the Hundred Years’ War, the English longbowmen used it as an insult to the French. The tale goes that any English archer that was captured by the French would have their index and middle finger cut off so they could not shoot arrows. The V sign was used by those who avoided capture in a gesture of defiance. But this may just be lore.
V for Victory
For victory, the most notable use was during World War II. In 1939 a French headline read ‘V pour victoire’. The BBC picked up on this and started the “V for Victory” campaign. The Morse code for V is three dots and a dash. This became the BBC’s call sign in all its foreign language programs to occupied Europe for the war. This also corresponded with Beethoven’s opening bars of the Fifth Symphony. Churchill in 1941 started using the V hand sign, although at times he turned his palm the wrong way.
According to the book Last Hope Island by Lynne Olson, the V sign was displayed all over Europe, on buildings, signs, and roadways so much so that the Germans could not remove them all. Hence they adopted the V sign for their own propaganda as in “Germany is Victorious on All Fronts.”
Live long and prosper
Star Trek’s Vulcan gesture was described by Leonard Nimoy as “a double-fingered version of Churchill’s victory sign.” But that was not its origin. In an article in the LA Times Leonard Nimoy attended the High Holy Days for the blessing called Birkat Kohanim. The priest’s hands were gesturing what would later become the Vulcan salutation. Nimoy states, “It’s the shape of the letter Shin in Hebrew, which is the first letter in the word Shaddai, a word for God, and shalom, the word for peace. It came back to me years later when we made a Star Trek episode “Amok Time”, when Spock returns to his home planet for the first time and we see him interact with Vulcans.”
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