Tuesday, June 16, 2009

What the heck is this symbol?


I have seen countless photos of people posing with this sign. People at rock concerts show this gesture with wagging tongues and shout and scream. I always used to wonder if these guys/gals actually know what the sign means or is it only BDIW (brain-dead imitation of the west) syndrome. (By people, I refer to my countrymen out here.) I would believe it to be the latter as the tendency of sounding,looking and behaving more "americanized" than the americans, is all too evident these days in our cities. Someone told me that "Dude, thats like very cool and attitude man, its like rebel/evil/devil/style man...how do i explain, thats the latest style.....so you should do it too." I used to wonder how the heck a hand gesture could mean attitude. So, when I had seen enough of photos with wannabes with this weird hand gesture, I had to check out the facts. So, wiki to the rescue. Some interesting facts* of this symbol

1) Its called the Corna.
2) Meaning of the sign is location specific.
3) Sign of infidelity
4) Sign of cuckold
5) Italian sign for warding off bad luck (Mallochio)
6) Satan salute
7) Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi held this sign over the head of the Spanish foreign minister. Wonder what he was indicating.Hehe
8) It was Black Sabbath's Ronnie James Dio who introduced this sign in Music culture. (Incidently, Black Sabbath is Heavy Metal and not Rock...) and Dio says its 'Mallochio' and not the devil/evil sign.
9) In american sign language, it unofficially means BS. (On the other hand, if the thumb is extended, it means 'I Love you'.)

So, the next time you find people showing 'attitude' of this form, asking them if it meant that they were a cuckold could end up with a bloody nose for you. And if you want to ape this sign too, pick your meaning. Until then \/ (thats the peace sign, btw :P)

Many other tit-bits including elaborations on above can be found here.

Credit: Wikipedia

* Calling things mentioned on Wiki as a 'fact' is probably incorrect. Unless proved otherwise, will believe wiki :)

3 comments:

Pappul said...

good research man ... !!

Mohsin said...

sahi re baapu...
I second Pratix, good research..
BDIW bahut hai yar lekin yaha pe, and the attitude argument that goes with it.. [Btw if u really go n ask 'what does it mean', you'll receive anger and condescension in return, so be prepared..]

vivek said...

@Patrick Thnx...:) Research pata nahi, its just reading one wiki :D

@Mohsin I bet majority of people who do such stuff have no idea about it. Just do it because everyone else does it. And yes, I wont ask 'what does it mean' for sure :D