raised back of hand: medium-dark skin tone
Unicode: 1F91A 1F3FE
Description
A waving hand with medium-dark skin tone, depicted as if waving goodbye or hello.
Group:
People & Body > hand-fingers-open
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
A gesture of greeting, farewell, or getting attention. It's generally neutral but can imply friendliness or a polite acknowledgment.
Backstory
This emoji was standardized as part of Unicode 8.0 in 2015 and added to Emoji 1.0. It's a common and fundamental gesture across many cultures, making it a universal and easily understood emoji. The skin tone modifier (1F3FE) was introduced to allow for more inclusive representation.
Usage Examples
- Greeting someone: 'Hey there! 👋🏾'
- Saying goodbye: 'See you tomorrow! 👋🏾'
- Acknowledging someone: 'Got your message! 👋🏾'
- Getting attention: 'Over here! 👋🏾'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Commonly used for 'hello' or 'goodbye'. Can also be used to say 'hi' to someone across a room or to acknowledge someone briefly.
East Asian culture:
Similar usage for greetings and farewells. In some contexts, it can also be used to signal for attention or to get someone to come closer.
South Asia:
Generally used for greetings and farewells. Can also imply 'come here' or 'stop' in specific contexts, depending on the number of hands and arm movement.