Are the Roman numerals based on what your hand looks like when you count?
Are the Roman numerals based on what your hand looks like when you count?
Each I is a finger, V is the thumb and index. X is crossing your index and middle finger.
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I've never heard of crossing your fingers like that to indicate 10.
Then you haven't been to China. It's a shorthand gesture there. The character for ten is 十 so I'm not sure if the gesture informed the character or the other way around. What is noteworthy is just that both cultures ended up with a cross to denote ten.
Possibly an archaic way? They also counted Base 12. XII is 12, fingers crossed plus the other 2 up?
The Romans didn't use base 12. Roman numerals aren't a positional system.
What about V for 5? There's only 2 people I ever saw make a V with their hand. Spock, and Vader.
No, not Darth Vader. I mean the OTHER Vader.
Back to the Future's "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" definitely threw one of these 🖖
I believe that's some sort of religious Jewish blessing. Idk where I got that idea, maybe Lemmy.
TIL
I'll admit, I thought "I'm sure I'd have heard that before if it was true", but it appears to be the case! It's apparently based on a gesture Leonard Nimoy saw during a blessing as a boy.
I guess it's like the ICXC hand shape that vicars and priests use in Christianity.
These religious leaders and their hand gestures...
Yes, that's right. I'm glad it prompted you to look for yourself, rather than dismiss out of hand. That shows something special.
ETA; there are also mudras. These religions are more closely related than it seems at a glance.
It's archaic, we just don't count like this anymore. Probably not since adoption of Arabic Numbers
