Fist pound
Encyclopedia
Gesture
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body...
similar in meaning to a handshake
Handshake
A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp one of each other's like hands, in most cases accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands.-History:...
or high five
High five
The high five is a celebratory hand gesture that occurs when two people simultaneously raise one hand, about head high, and push, slide or slap the flat of their palm and hand against the palm and flat hand of their partner...
. A fist bump can also be a symbol of giving respect. It can be followed by various other hand and body gestures and may be part of a dap greeting
Dap greeting
Dap is a form of handshake and friendly gesture that has recently become popular in western cultures.- Overview :It is often confused with the word "tap". Often used in cricket for "touching the gloves", and when referring to fist bump...
. It is commonly used in baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
as a form of celebration with teammates, and with opposition players at the end of a game.
The gesture is performed when two participants each form a closed fist with one hand and then lightly tap the front of their fists together. The participant's fists may be either vertically-oriented (perpendicular to the ground) or horizontally-oriented. Unlike the standard handshake, which is typically performed only with each participants' right hand, a fist bump may be performed with participants using either hand.
History
According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie MiklaszBernie Miklasz
Bernie Miklasz is an American sportswriter and sports radio personality. He has been the lead sports columnist at the St. Louis Post Dispatch since 1989, and is a veteran of the St. Louis sports radio scene. He hosts The Bernie Miklasz Show on 101 ESPN in St. Louis.Miklasz is a native of...
, the fist bump was created by Hall of Famer Stan Musial
Stan Musial
Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial is a retired professional baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals . Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial was a record 24-time All-Star selection , and is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball...
as a way to prevent getting colds from shaking so many hands. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine wonders if it evolved from the handshake
Handshake
A handshake is a short ritual in which two people grasp one of each other's like hands, in most cases accompanied by a brief up and down movement of the grasped hands.-History:...
and the high-five. They cite knuckle bumping in the 1970s with NBA player Baltimore Bullets
Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards are a professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C., previously known as Washington Bullets. They play in the National Basketball Association .-Early years:...
guard Fred Carter
Fred Carter
Fredrick James Carter is a former professional basketball player and head coach.A 6' 3" guard from Mount St. Mary's University, Carter was selected by the Baltimore Bullets in the third round of the 1969 NBA Draft...
. Others claim the Wonder Twins
Wonder Twins
The Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, are fictional extraterrestrial comic book superheroes published by DC Comics. Their first comic book appearance was in Super Friends #7 , by E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon...
, minor characters in the 1970s Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
superhero FISH cartoon Super Friends
Super Friends
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup...
, who touched knuckles and cried "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" were the originators. However, the "fist bump" or "pound" can easily be traced as far back as the late 1800s and early 1900s to the boxer's handshake as a way to greet when hands are gloved. In fact, the fist bump's origins may well lie in the animal kingdom as the gesture is natural behaviour observed in primates, according to a book published by Margaret Power in 1991.
Someone helped popularize the fist bump in the early 1990s. Mr.Barris (?) started a ritual in which he would go to the announcer table before every game and cover his hands with talcum powder (he would even clap his hands, thus releasing a powdery mist on the announcers, something LeBron James
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a...
would later emulate). Since his hands were now prepared to grip the ball properly, he did not want to shake hands with anyone to have that powder removed. Jordan extended his hand in a fist bump to all the opponents on the court prior to the opening of the game, starting a new trend.
On June 3, 2008, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and his wife Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
fist bumped during a televised presidential campaign speech in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the gesture became known as "the fist bump heard 'round the world". Fox News host E. D. Hill
E. D. Hill
E. D. Hill is an American businessperson and journalist. She has been a news anchor and radio host who formerly worked for the Fox News Channel and now works with CNN...
paraphrased an anonymous internet comment in asking whether the gesture was a "terrorist fist jab", after which she was fired.
In light of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the dean of medicine at the University of Calgary
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
, Tomas Feasby, suggested that the fist bump may be a "nice replacement of the handshake" in an effort to prevent transmission of the virus.
Other instances
- HeathersHeathersHeathers is a 1989 black comedy film starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty. The film portrays four girls in a trend-setting clique at a fictional Ohio high school...
, in the popular 80s teen movie Heathers, Ram and another of the highschool's football playing students "punch it in" and touch knuckles in the fist bump style. The movie we released in 1988. - Myron LoweryMyron LoweryMyron Lowery was the Mayor Pro Tem of Memphis, Tennessee, from July 31, 2009 to October 26, 2009. He is a former television news anchor for WMC-TV 5 in Memphis. Mayor Pro Tem Lowery has served on the Memphis City Council since 1991. He became interim mayor on July 31, 2009, following the...
, acting as mayor of Memphis, TennesseeMemphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, fist bumped the Dalai LamaDalai LamaThe Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
during his visit to Memphis. - Rap group EPMDEPMDEPMD is an American hip hop group from Brentwood, New York. The group's name is a concatenation of the members' name "E" and "PMD" or an acronym for "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars", referencing its members, emcees Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith...
used the fist bump as the sole image on the cover of their 1997 album Back in Business.