V sign

The V sign is a hand gesture in which the first and second fingers are raised and parted, whilst the remaining fingers are clenched. Generally considered a "Victory" sign, it can also carry connotations of "Peace" and "Defiance".

In the UK, if the hand is held out, palm towards the person performing the gesture, this is considered to be highly insulting, similar in severity to the one-fingered salute and meaning "Fuck off".

In Japan the gesture is traditionally used in photographs, with no necessary particular meaning.

Current usage

In the modern world, the gesture has a very confused meaning, as it depends on the culture to which the people using it belong, and what they are trying to signify.

• "Victory" – Straight fingers, palm either way (but only with palm out in the UK!).
• "Peace" – Straight fingers, palm either way (but only with palm out in the UK!). It is often used by anti-war protesters.
• "Insulting" – Straight or very slightly curled fingers, palm toward the signer.
• Signal Two, as in 2 beers – Straight fingers, palm in (but not in the UK if you want two beers!)
• "Air quotes" – Curled index and middle fingers, palm away from the signer, invariably used in pairs.
• "Bunny ears" – Curled index and middle fingers, palm away from the signer, usually used singularly. When used jocularly (behind someone's head in a photograph, for example), they can be straight as well as curled.

Maritime distress signal

In relation to maritime issues, an internationally recognized signal for distress is a large black V painted on a large orange or yellow sheet.

Winston Churchill and the victory sign

Winston Churchill used a V sign in both versions to symbolize "V for Victory" during World War II. Early on in the war he used palm in (sometimes with a cigar between the fingers). Later in the war he used palm out. It is thought that the aristocratic Churchill made the change after it was explained to him what it signified to the other classes in Britain. He developed the idea from a BBC campaign.

During World War II, Victor de Lavelaye suggested that Belgians, who were chalking up the letters RAF, should add a V for 'vrijheid' (Flemish for freedom). V also stands for victoire, the French for victory. This idea was developed by the BBC and on July 20 1941 a campaign was launched with a message from Churchill for occupied Europe. Douglas Ritchie of the BBC European Service, suggested an audible V using the morse code rhythm - three dots and a dash. This is the rhythm of the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony,"da da da daaaaa", and it was used as the call-sign by the BBC in its foreign language programmes to occupied Europe for the rest of the war.

Vietnam War and the peace sign

U.S. President Richard Nixon used the victory sign to connotate victory, an act which became one of his best-known trademarks.

The victory sign was appropriated and subverted by the anti-war protesters as a peace gesture.

UK and the insulting sign

The often-repeated myth that the insulting version originates from around the time of the Hundred Years War has no basis in fact. There is no evidence that captured English archers would have their two bow fingers cut off to prevent them using their weapon. Snopes has dealt at great length with this and related myths .

For a time in the UK "a Harvey (Smith)" became a way of describing the insulting version of the V-sign, much as the word of Cambronne is used in France, or "the Trudeau salute" is used to describe the one-fingered salute in Canada. This happened because in 1971 a show-jumper called Harvey Smith was disqualified for making a televised V-sign to the judges after winning the British Show Jumping Derby at Hickstead (Smith's win was reinstated two days later).

Japan and the V sign

During the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, figure skater Janet Lynn stumbled into Japanese pop culture when she fell during a free-skate period -- but continued to smile even as she sat on the ice. Though she placed only 3rd in the actual competition, her cheerful diligence and indefatigability resonated with many Japanese viewers, making her an overnight celebrity in Japan. Afterwards, Lynn (a peace activist) was repeatedly seen flashing the V sign in the Japanese media. Though the V sign was known of in Japan prior to Lynn's use of it there, she is credited by some Japanese for having popularized its use in amateur photographs.

Through the 1970s and 1980s in Japan, the V sign was often accompanied by a vocalization: "piisu!" This gairaigo exclamation has since fallen into disuse, though the V sign itself remains steadfastly popular.

Other

In Unicode, the "V sign, (Victory Hand)" symbol is U+270C (✌).

References

• Desmond Morris with Peter Collett, Peter Marsh and