raised back of hand: medium skin tone
Unicode: 1F91A 1F3FD
Description
A waving hand, showing the palm and all fingers extended, with a medium skin tone. It is a universal gesture for greeting or farewell.
Group:
People & Body > hand-fingers-open
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents friendly greeting, farewell, acknowledgement, or a signal for attention.
Backstory
The waving hand emoji was introduced in Unicode 6.0 (2010), representing a common human gesture for greeting or goodbye. The addition of skin tone modifiers (like 1F3FD for medium skin tone) came with Unicode 8.0 (2015), allowing for greater diversity in emoji representation.
Usage Examples
- Greeting someone: 'Hey there! 👋🏽'
- Saying goodbye: 'See you later! 👋🏽'
- Acknowledging someone from a distance: '👋🏽 over here!'
- Signaling for attention: 'Can I get some help? 👋🏽'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Commonly used for 'hello' or 'goodbye'.
East Asian culture:
Also used for greetings and farewells, but in some contexts, a shallower bow or nod might be preferred for formal situations. Can also be used to signal 'come here' in some variations.
Middle East / South Asia:
Can be used as a general greeting, though specific gestures like a namaste or salaam might be more traditional or formal.