Facial expressions and emojicons

Is it a way to show disbelief, a way to ask others to be quiet, or a cute gesture popularized by a K-Pop star?

It’s called “pinched fingers” and depending on where you are in the world, a new emoji announced by the Unicode Consortium, which approves standard emojis worldwide, could have a completely different meaning. Its official purpose, according to the emoji’s creators, is to represent the way an Italian might ask “what do you want?”.

But that has not stopped its differing interpretations worldwide since the icon was debuted in January 2020. In a 14-page proposal for the emoji, creators of the “pinched fingers” icon suggested that the gesture would be representative of Italian culture because “everybody knows Italians speak with their hands” – but may have other meanings elsewhere.

“We expect this emoji to be widely used not only in Italy and other Mediterranean countries,” [5] it says, “but also, more broadly, worldwide because of the increasing popularity of Italian culture and way of life.

“You will find people using this particular configuration of the fingers in most cultures, it is simply a universal form of signing.” For example, according to journalist Kim Zetter, the gesture can have a myriad of meanings in Israel. [6] In Nigeria, it was suggested the gesture could be the emoji version of “gbas gbos” – a back-and-forth argument – and in India it can be a way of asking if somebody is hungry.  In the Arab world it could be a gesture a mother would use toward her child. [7]