One-fingered salute

A one-fingered salute (one way of describing it amongst many), is a positioning of the fingers of the hand so that the middle or largest finger is extended, and the remaining fingers are curled back to the palm.

Displaying this gesture to another person with the palm facing oneself is considered an obscene insult to most people in Europe and the US. People in Britain typically recognize the V sign as an insulting gesture, in addition to the one finger salute.

In some Mediterranean countries, and much of Asia, it is permissible to use the middle finger to point to something(on a written page for example) and Western cultures often do recognize the use of the middle finger to point to things. However, it is considered more polite to use the index finger to point to something.

The origins of this gesture is highly speculative. It is identified as the "impudent finger" in Ancient Roman writings. It was defined there as a gesture intended to insult another. It has been noted that the gesture resembles an erect penis. Ancient Romans considered an image of an erect phallus as a talisman against evil spells. As a consequence, displaying this gesture to another may not have been a pseudo-sexual insult but rather a insulting statement depicting another person as unwilling or incapable to engage in a confrontation on equal footing.