Gestures might seem trivial but depending on context cultural miscommunication here can have deadly results.

For example, the Middle Eastern hand gesture for "stop" is totally different than American hand signals. The confusion probably caused at least a few of the hundreds of Iraqi civilians shot at traffic checkpoints by US soldiers. https://savageminds.org/2008/09/28/how-not-to-signal-stop/

Hilarious. Growing up in Portugal, what I learned from my family was "don't put your hands in your mouth" and "hands are dirty". Objectively superior to this nonsense.

aw damn creepy drawings

I do not trust this article.

> 5 / to bring one’s hand toward one’s mouth without quite touching it Modesty. A gesture of eloquence employed by the great orators of antiquity.

AFAIK, this is the wrong explanation. The gesture is still in use today in Italy, and its meaning is different.

I wonder where the author learned English - there are a lot of words and phrases in this article/book that I’ve never heard before! To simper, adoration, put on airs, amorous, interlocutor, etc