# Rubbing your hands together in anticipation (of something good)



## Dee Poe

A tribal people in SEAsia who show cultural evidence of contact with Semitic culture use the phrase "rub the hands together", but without the nuanced meaning found in English of "in anticipation of some good food or something good about to happen."  [Additionally, they speak about "blowing on hands being rubbed together", but don't use this with the English meaning of "doing so to warm the hands."]  In fact, they don't know what this idiom in their language signifies; it is found in their traditional poetry.  I am trying to determine the cultural/linguistic source of this idiom entering their language.  Their usage is connected with calling out a message on a horn that is blown.  Furthermore, the use of this idiom is with distinctly religious/salvific connotation.
     Does anyone know if Hebrew, Aramaic, or Syriac has the idiom of "rubbing the hands together" with the nuance of meaning found in its English usage?


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## tFighterPilot

Nope, no such word in Hebrew.


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## bat777

You can say in Hebrew "lechakech yadyim behana'a", which means something like "rubbing the hands together out of pleasure ". 

I'm not sure whether this is of any help.


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## בעל-חלומות

I don't know if it's related or not, but the word for "to rub" is שיפשוף (shifshoof), and the word for a religious blowing horn is שופר (shofar). It's possible that they both come from the same ancient root - ש.פ. Or it might just be a coincidence, because I can't really see the connection between horns and rubbing, unless the tadition is to rub the horn before blowing it or something like that. I wouldn't know though, since I have never even been in a synagogue. Anyone here knows more about shofarim?

This is really interesting. Can you tell us which tribe are you talking about?


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## Dee Poe

Thanks for your help.  What I was hoping I might find still eludes me, namely the origin of this term (and its associations) in this language.  I will have an opportunity to see people from several Asian countries next week, and will pose this same question, as the tribal group seems to have migrated from India to their present location in Thailand and Burma.
     They have orally transmitted poetry of religious associations for centuries.  The particular poem I am referencing goes like this: "Blow on the bubbly water that has frothed to the top as you rub your hands together, and this will become God's image."  The "bubbly water frothing up" is understandable from other allusions and usage as referencing He who rises up from the waters (of death). But I am at a loss to figure out where the rubbing of the hands together comes from, since this has no known meaning to this tribal group.  Another longer poem goes this way: "the needle-like top of the great, high mountain is very steep [or, another meaning, "is like a balance scales"]; neither the Righteous God can ascend to this top, nor the Merciful God can reach it; the only One/thing which can rise to the top is a certain kind of speckled bird whose call signals the death of someone; the rubbing of this bird's two wings together has the sound of a horn being blown [to call us to assemble]".    Apart from this and a few other references to the rubbing together of birds' wings or the branches of two trees, there do not seem to be other references to the parallel term, "rubbing the hands together" that I have been able to locate in their poetry.  
     The people are called "Karen", and like one or two tribal groups in Assam [northeast India], refer to God as "Y'wa".  These are not lost Israeli tribes; but there is the distinct possibility of contact with Diaspora Israelites, perhaps in northwestern India, many of whom appear to have been Christians.  [That conclusion is based on the fact that some of their poems have themes and allusions demonstrating a familiarity with a number of Old Testament texts, sometimes with an understanding unrivaled by present Jewish or Christian scholarship, a single example being their poetic development of the reference in Jer. 31:22 to "a woman encircling a man".]  One of their place names about which they only know that it is at the ends of the earth, so to speak, is "Meh-Naw-Serh", which in their own language has no clear meaning, except as an ancient place name.


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## Jana337

In Czech, we have it (mnout si ruce) as an expression of satisfaction and sometimes even of malicious glee - when you outmaneuver your rivals or just succeed in something.


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## Dee Poe

Added Note for any Rabbinic Scholars out there:
The practice of clapping one's hands (and of stamping one's feet) is attested in the Hebrew scriptures [cf. Ezekiel 25:6] with context suggesting the nuanced meaning of "a demonstration of scorn and contempt for another" and/or "an expression of gladness that judgment is being poured out upon an enemy".  Noting that the prophet Micah writes in Micah 7:8, "Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy,/ Though I fall, I will rise" -- I wonder if the rabbis took this word in Micah and applied it to the cultural practice of clapping one's hands in derision at the downfall of an enemy, moderating the open show of contempt into a more anticipatory "rubbing of the hands together" in expectation of Divine judgment in the future.  Does anyone happen to know of any such instructions to moderate one's clapping into a rubbing to be found in the rabbis?


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## Outsider

Same in Portuguese, _esfregar as mãos (de satisfação)_.


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## Hakro

In *Finnish* "hieroa käsiään" is used in both (1) and (2) but mostly it's used in situations that Jana explained, especially if you succeed to cheat somebody.


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## Stéphane89

In French: _Se frotter les mains_


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## Dee Poe

Very interesting answers thus far.  Thanks!
There would seem to probably be a European cultural connection at work here.  I wonder how far eastward this nuance of meaning extends?  Anyone out there live in Iran, Pakistan, India, or the central Asian republics???


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## Noedatorre

> In *Finnish* "hieroa käsiään" is used in both (1) and (2) but mostly it's used in situations that Jana explained, especially if you succeed to cheat somebody.


The same in Spanish.

_Frotarse las manos_


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## OldAvatar

Romanians also had the habit of spitting in the hands and then rubbing them. Nowadays, it is considered obsolete, due to lack of hygiene.
The expression is:
* A scuipa în palme!*  To spit on the palms!
or
* A-şi freca palmele!* To rub the palms!


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## irene.acler

As in Spanish and Portuguese, in *Italian*: _sfregarsi le mani (di soddisfazione)_.


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## Hakro

OldAvatar said:


> Romanians also had the habit of spitting in the hands and then rubbing them. Nowadays, it is considered obsolete, due to lack of hygiene.


Finns do the same (without really spitting), and it means: "Let's start working!"

The "etymology" of this gesture is of course the fact that with a slightly damp hand you get a better grip from a tool - axe, shovel, etc.


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## OldAvatar

I guess it is more likely a protection for the hands, in order not to get any wefts. I don't see how a wet palm could have more grip on a tool...


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## Hakro

OldAvatar said:


> I guess it is more likely a protection for the hands, in order not to get any wefts. I don't see how a wet palm could have more grip on a tool...


If you have worked with an axe, for example, you should know that a dry palm slips easily from the wooden handle.


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## Joannes

Dutch: *zich in de handen wrijven*

We know the spit'n'rub gesture to get to work too.


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## Dee Poe

Any Greek speakers out there to shed light on its etymology and its spread to Europe and also to the Indian subcontinent?
In Koine and classical Greek, the term used to translate "rub hands together" [such as is found in Luke 1 (psi-alpha-omega)] had a classical cognate found in Herodotus [prefixing 'kata' to this verb], and used in describing the rubbing together of three kinds of wood on a stone to prepare a perfumed ointment and skin cleanser applied to the skin by the inhabitants of southern Russia 2000+ years ago.  Of relevance to the issue of the etymology of the expression, "to rub the hands together in glee or in anticipation" is the fact that a cognate term in Koine Greek [psi-alpha-lambda-lamda-omega] means "to sing praise to God" and seems to be derived from the other verb ["rubbing hands together"] by the association of "plucking the strings of a lyre with one's fingers as one sings".  The term for "singing" is often used to translate the "expression of joyful thanksgiving arising from the heart", at least when the Greek verb [psi-alpha-lambda-lambda-omega] is selectively employed in the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures.    So, ... tentatively, I could suggest an etymology whereby rubbing hands together was associated with "singing and playing on the lyre, particularly in joyful thanksgiving expressed from the heart".  So with Alexander the Great, the cultural expression would have reached Parthia and spread to the Indian subcontinent; and through the Graeco-Roman foundation of most European cultures, it would have permeated European cultures and languages.
     The problem for me is that I still don't know if this nuance of 'joyful anticipation or delight'  is the nuance that "rubbing the hands together" has in the poetry of a people found in Thailand and Burma, or if there is not a different associated meaning [there are at least three other possibilities based on context and other, Asian cultural associations].  Any help out there from Turkic-speaking language groups???


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## kusurija

Jana337 said:


> In Czech, we have it (mnout si ruce) as an expression of satisfaction and sometimes even of malicious glee - when you outmaneuver your rivals or just succeed in something.


 
In Lithuanian: "trinti rankas" - all the same as Jana337 refered.


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## Angel.Aura

In Italian:
Fregarsi le mani


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## dudasd

In Serbian, there is the same phrase with "rubbing hands/palms together" (tljati/trljkati šake/dlanove), usually with joy, or because of predicted/expected joy.

The phrase "pjunuti u / opljunuti šake/dlanove" (to spit ar one's hands/palms) means preparations and decidedness concerning some serious job, but I think it has its practical reason - when you have to pull hard (like lifting something heavy) you really have to make your palms wet so that they don't slip and you can grip harder.


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