• Flax
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        51 month ago

        Who copied it from the freemasons

      • @BossDj@lemm.ee
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        331 month ago

        This is way more accurate than that urban dictionary.

        In Hawaii (depending on where you are) shaka is used all the time. Kinda like waving to someone with a hint of good vibe to it. Also to emphasize “hey that’s cool”. You see it a lot waving thanks to cars, too

        • Dr. WeskerOP
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          101 month ago

          Is there also a hand signal for when something isn’t good?

        • @TheCannonball@lemmy.world
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          91 month ago

          To add to this, it’s widely used in Brazil who copied it from surf culture.

          China also uses it as part of their one hand counting system. To them it’s the number 6 (pronounced ‘leo’). The use of it in western culture has allowed them to adopt it as a way of saying something is cool. They will say 666 (pronounced “leo leo leo”) while making the hand gesture to say something is cool. This fact was very fun to explain to my ultra conservative family back in the states.

          Source: I taught in China for nine years in an international school with a very large Brazilian community.

          • zqps
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            21 month ago

            Fascinating. I wonder how the millions of Chinese Catholics feel about this use.

            • @angrystego@lemmy.world
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              21 month ago

              Catholics are diverse, I suppose the Chinese ones might not be into the Apocalypse stuff that much, not everyone is. I don’t really know, though, could be interesting.

  • @GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Dude, radical emoji. That’s just a gnarly way of tell someone to hang loose, bro. I’ve usually seen it done left-to-right instead of up-and-down, but the universe is infinite so if you wanna flip it that’s totally copacetic.

    Edit: I started thinking about surfers and it dragged up memories of this legend on Tosh.0

    • Dr. WeskerOP
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      81 month ago

      It’s good to hang loose? What if stuff falls out?

      • @GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        “Hang loose” is what you tell someone who needs to chill out and let the waves carry them away from their problems man. Align your chakras with the Earth and so on.

        Seriously though, the reason I wrote like that is I’m using the slang of roughly 90s/2000s-ish California surfer culture, which is where the hand signal was used to tell people to relax and be happy. Or say hi and let them know you are relaxed and happy. If you imagine it as a gang sign for surfer hippies you aren’t far off.

        • Swordgeek
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          21 month ago

          Hang Loose (both gesture and phrase) goes back to at LEAST the early '70s.

        • Dr. WeskerOP
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          -41 month ago

          I have bots disabled in my lemmy’s settings, why is this showing???

            • Dr. WeskerOP
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              41 month ago

              price for apple sauce at walmart

              • @Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
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                31 month ago

                Sure! I’d be happy to help you with that one.

                The price for applesauce at Walmart varies based on the brand and size. For example:

                Great Value Original Applesauce (4 oz, 6 cups) is priced at $2.78.

                Great Value Original Applesauce (48 oz jar) costs $6.74.

                White House All-Natural Applesauce (50 oz jar) is around $1.97.

                These prices may vary slightly depending on your location or any ongoing promotions.

  • CEbbinghaus
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    1 month ago

    The amount of people that dont know about shakas is killing me. No culture

        • @shalafi@lemmy.world
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          31 month ago

          Since the 80s in Oklahoma for me. My dad’s generation came up with this. Thought it was common knowledge.

      • CEbbinghaus
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        -11 month ago

        Dont need to have heard the term. Just need to know it’s rough meaning. Some people really think it means “call me” which while a valid interpretation also messes with its actual meaning

        • @hexabs@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Get off your high horse lol. It’s literally called the call me hand in the official Unicode emoji specs. Not everything has to relate to the USA, friend.

          That said, feel free to interpret it as the shaka with your friends. No need to foist that on the rest of us.

          • CEbbinghaus
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            21 month ago

            Bold of you to assume I live in the USA. Consider that this is a very well known symbol in more island nations than just Hawaii. Unicode is allowed name things wrong and they very often do. It’s ultimately the proposal to the Unicode consortium that names the emoji.

            Take it to mean whatever you want but saying that shakas is a purely US thing is insulting to it. Think about how long the telephone has existed in comparison to islanders…

          • @pbbananaman@lemmy.world
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            01 month ago

            Way way more people use the Shaka to mean Shaka as opposed to call me. If you use that symbol to mean call me, I can’t really help you, but I’ve never actually seen that in real life after like 1995.

            Unicode naming can be wrong (and it is here) and that’s ok.

    • @red_pigeon@lemm.ee
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      11 month ago

      Why ? The sign has different meaning in different cultures. It is just your ignorance of anything outside your bubble.

  • Rhynoplaz
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    211 month ago

    Isn’t it a surfer thing? Like hang ten, radical, man.

  • @Furbag@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This emoji has two meanings:

    1. the “original” meaning is based on the “shaka sign” from Hawai’ian culture. It’s often paired with the phrase “hang loose”, which generally just means to relax, have a good time, etc.

    2. When mobile telephones first started to become mainstream, they would have an antenna that extended up and out of the phone chassis a speaker and a receiver that you would speak directly into, so people picked up this gesture that mimicked the shape of a cell phone. Pressing it against your cheek with the pinky finger in front of your mouth and the thumb covering the opening of your ear would be accompanied by saying or mouthing “call me” was pretty universally understood and was one way to communicate the desire to speak on the phone from a distance where you could still visually see someone but shouting was ineffective or impractical.

    edit: some people have clarified that the gesture predates cell phones, which makes sense.

    • @CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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      51 month ago

      This way predates cell phones. Handsets have been in use for… Nearly 100 years I think. Not sure exactly when the gesture caught on our it’s origin.

    • @ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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      31 month ago

      I remember using the second definition in elementary school in the early 90s, before cell phones were on common use, long before they flipped open, and even before they had extendable antennas. I suppose they might have been a cordless landline, but I always assumed it was a corded phone. The “call me” message, then, wasn’t about being able to see someone but not hear them except in very specific circumstances; instead, it was implied to mean “call me later.” It could be used as a way of flirting, or it could be more platonic. I suppose it could also be used in a business setting, though I wasn’t really old enough to know.

  • @uebquauntbez@lemmy.world
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    121 month ago

    Symbol for the hand used like a good old telephone receiver. Thumb is near ones ear, the little finger is near ones mouth. Used here in Germany when land line were used more often to show someone behind a window: I’ll call you (later).