pinching hand: medium skin tone
Unicode: 1F90F 1F3FD
Description
A hand showing the pinched finger gesture, with medium skin tone.
Group:
People & Body > hand-fingers-partial
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents a variety of emotions including: asking 'what do you want?', 'what's the matter?', 'wait a minute', 'speak up', 'slow down', 'a little bit'. In some cultures, it can be an insult.
Backstory
This emoji was introduced in Unicode 13.0 (2020) as part of the 'pinched fingers' character. Its adoption reflects the widespread use of this gesture across various cultures, though with significantly different meanings.
Usage Examples
- Asking 'What do you mean?': 'Are you serious? 🤌'
- Expressing 'just a little bit': 'Can I just have a tiny bit of that? 🤌'
- In an Italian context 'What do you want?': 'Ma che vuoi? 🤌'
- Nigerian context 'Gbas gbos': 'The argument was pure gbas gbos 🤌'
- Sarcasm/Exasperation: 'You're telling me you don't know? 🤌'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Often seen as a request for something to be slowed down or a 'small amount' of something. Can also be interpreted as 'what do you want?' or 'what’s the issue?'
Italian culture:
Widely known as 'ma che vuo'?' (what do you want?), used to express disagreement, frustration, or asking for clarification.
Israeli culture:
Known as a 'sababa' gesture, meaning 'cool', 'alright', or 'great', used to agree or affirm.
Arabic culture:
Can be an aggressive gesture, often used in conversations to signify that 'you're going to get it' or 'just a minute' (in a threatening way).
Nigerian culture:
Often used to mean 'gbas gbos' (a back-and-forth argument) or 'a little bit'.
Indian Culture:
Often used to ask 'what's up?' or 'what's the problem?'. Sometimes used dismissively, similar to 'whatever'.