Thumbing one's nose

Statue of Till Eulenspiegel thumbing his nose at someone

Stalin performing the gesture in the 1940s

Thumbing one's nose, also known as cocking a snook,[1] is a sign of derision, disrespect, contempt, or defiance, made by putting the thumb on the nose, holding the palm open and perpendicular to the face, and wiggling the remaining fingers.[2][3] It is used mostly by schoolchildren. It is also known as thumbing the nose, Anne's Fan or Queen Anne's Fan.[4][5]

The phrase "cocking a snook" can be used figuratively: the Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1938 usage "The Rome–Berlin axis...cocked the biggest snook yet at the League of Nations idea" by Eric Ambler in his Cause for Alarm.[6]

See also

• I've got your nose
• Mooning
• Reverse V sign
• The finger

References

1. Cambridge University Press (2006). Cambridge Idioms Dictionary (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86037-7.
2. McNeill, David (1992). Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal About Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. 'Cock a snook' – the meaning and origin of this phrase, Phrases.org.uk. Retrieved at 1 January 2018
4. Shipley, Joseph Twadell (2001). The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots (reprint ed.). Baltimore: JHU Press. p. 302. ISBN 0-8018-6784-3. Retrieved 8 August 2009.(^[failed verification] - no explicit connection to one specific Queen Anne in this source.)
5. "The British also call it "Queen Anne's fan" because it became popular during her reign, of 1702-1714." Cocking a snook at a bender, Chris Lloyd for The Northern Echo, Darlington, 6 Sep 2018, accessed 11 Oct 2021.
6. "Snook, n.3". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 1 January 2018.