Fingers crossed

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Keep your fingers crossed

Crossing your fingers for someone ( also: keeping your fingers crossed for someone ) is a phrase used to express that you wish a person success in a difficult matter. The thumb is held between the other fingers and you show this encouraging gesture to the person you wish success. With this gesture you can also wish yourself luck and keep your fingers crossed, for example while turning a wheel of fortune .

This gesture is used in Austria , Germany , the Netherlands , Slovenia , Poland , Switzerland , Sweden , Estonia , the Czech Republic , Slovakia , South Africa and Russia , while in other countries people tend to cross their fingers “(Especially in English-speaking countries, English: fingers crossed , but also French: croiser les doigts pour porter chance à quelqu'un ).

The saying goes back to the fact that in a competition you involuntarily clench your hands when you strongly wish that someone would succeed. In addition, superstitious ideas are cited as the origin, as well as the gesture common at the gladiatorial games in ancient Rome, with which a fallen warrior was asked for mercy.

From the area of ​​superstition, the notion that the thumb is a lucky finger insofar as one is holding on to an enemy demon by "pressing" (i.e. buckling the thumb into one's own fist) , which can no longer harm others ( Attachment spell); Turning your thumbs around each other was considered improper in Germany and Norway , as you are playing with the devil. The same applies to the folding of hands during prayer , which is supposed to bind the deity that is present.

Web links

Wiktionary: Cross your fingers for someone  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ thumb . In: Duden. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c thumb . In: The Dictionary of Idioms. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  3. ↑ Entry thumb . In: Duden. Volume 7. The dictionary of origin . 4th edition. 2007. p. 136. ISBN 3-411-04074-2 .
  4. ↑ Entry thumb . In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli (Ed.) Concise Dictionary of German Superstition , Volume 2. Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter, 1929/1930, columns 174-177.
  5. ↑ bind entry . In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli (Ed.) Concise Dictionary of German Superstition , Volume 1. Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter, 1927, here column 1328 (with express reference to the fingers crossed)