# He thumbed his nose



## 7ayrana

Would anyone kindly tell me what would be a good Arabic equivalent of this idiomatic expression?  thanks.


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## ayed

7ayrana said:


> Would anyone kindly tell me what would be a good Arabic equivalent of this idiomatic expression? thanks.


 Welcome, 7ayrana, to the Arabic forum.

The context is very important to give an accurate answer.
It could be: *ازدرى-تمرد على-سخر من*


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## Ghabi

But do you use this gesture (thumbing your nose) in the Arab world to express contempt? We don't do that in Chinese culture.


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## ayed

Ghabi said:


> But do you use this gesture (thumbing your nose) in the Arab world to express contempt? We don't do that in Chinese culture.


No, we do not use that gesture.But there is another one 

_When I ask my son to do something, he sometimes just touch the tip of his nose with the index finger saying : on my nose to mean:Ok, or Yes, or Well._


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## Ghabi

Interesting. Let's make up an example: "His parents always tell him to get married, but he thumbs his nose at the idea". Can we say (in badawi of course):

والديه يقولونله دايما أنه يتزوج لكن الفكرة ماهي بعلى خشيمه


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## hiba

Ghabi said:


> But do you use this gesture (thumbing your nose) in the Arab world to express contempt? We don't do that in Chinese culture.



I'm not sure what "thumbing your nose" means exactly, so sorry if this is irrelevant, but in Yemen we flick the index finger against the tip of the nose. It means something very nice or great. At the same time you say "min hana"


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## Ghabi

hiba said:


> I'm not sure what "thumbing your nose" means exactly, so sorry if this is irrelevant, but in Yemen we flick the index finger against the tip of the nose. It means something very nice or great. At the same time you say "min hana"


Great to learn that. For the Western gesture, see for exmaple here.


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## ayed

Ghabi said:


> Interesting. Let's make up an example: "His parents always tell him to get married, but he thumbs his nose at the idea". Can we say (in badawi of course):
> 
> الشيبان يقولوله دايمان "أعرس"غير هو يتهزى بهم



His parents always kept telling him to get married but he mocks the idea.


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## Ghabi

Re-reading the thread, I guess the questioner is asking for a "cultural equivalent": a gesture in the Arab World used to show contempt, who can also be used metaphorically to mean "to mock/deride/sneer". Is there any?


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## azeid

Ghabi said:


> Great to learn that. For the Western gesture, see for exmaple here.



If I saw any one doing this gesture,I would say that he is an idiot (عبيط - أبله -أهبل-مجنون) or he did it for fun.This is my impression about this gesture.



Ghabi said:


> Re-reading the thread, I guess the questioner is asking for a "cultural equivalent": a gesture in the Arab World used to show contempt, who can also be used metaphorically to mean "to mock/deride/sneer". Is there any?



Moving the index finger up-down pointing it towards another person,this is considered a sign of mocking/deriding/sneering.


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## Ghabi

azeid said:


> Moving the index finger up-down pointing it towards another person,this is considered a sign of mocking/deriding/sneering.


So it's moving up-and-down, not back-and-forth, different from "wagging one's finger", right? How do you say that in Arabic? هزّ أصبعه?


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## azeid

Ghabi said:


> So it's moving up-and-down, not back-and-forth, different from "wagging one's finger", right? How do you say that in Arabic? هزّ أصبعه?


I don't have a photo for it right now but I think it is different from wagging one's finger.
The situation I can remember is when some one says to the other person 
كلك على بعضك من فوق لتحت ماتساوى شىء
 كلك على بعضك من فوقك لتحتك ماتسواش حاجة باللهجة المصرية
and he moves his index finger up and down to mock from the other person and to insult him in this situation.
You can say أشار إليه بسخرية - هز إصبعه فى سخرية منه in Arabic.


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## Ghabi

azeid said:


> The situation I can remember is when some one says to the other person
> كلك على بعضك من فوق لتحت ماتساوى شىء
> كلك على بعضك من فوقك لتحتك ماتسواش حاجة باللهجة المصرية
> and he moves his index finger up and down to mock from the other person and to insult him in this situation.


Something like "you're a regular good-for-nothing bum"? Is the gesture like this?


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## azeid

Ghabi said:


> Something like "you're a regular good-for-nothing bum"? Is the gesture like this?



Something like that but it is better to separate the thumb and the middle and to move the index finger up and down while the palm is down facing the earth.


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## Ghabi

azeid said:


> Something like that but it is better to separate the thumb and the middle and to move the index finger up and down while the palm is down facing the earth.


Got it.  Well, we should have an icon here for this gesture ... would be quite useful.


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## azeid

I know this is confusing without photos showing that but why do you want it here?. Take care,This is really a very rude one and I'm not responsible for what will happen if you use it.


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