About

Pinched Fingers Emjoi, also known as the Italian Hands Emoji, is an illustration of a hand with the palm faced up and the fingers touching the thumb while pointed towards the sky. Many have compared it to a hand gesture used in Italian culture.

Origin

On January 29th, 2020, the official Emojipedia Twitter ^[1] account tweeted, "Now approved: 117 new emojis for 2020." Among these new emojis, they included the pinched fingers emoji. The post received more than 43,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left).

That day, they also posted an image of the "Pinched Fingers" with various skin tones.^[2] The post received more than 37,000 likes and 8,600 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Spread

That day, numerous accounts on Twitter expressed their appreciation of the new emoji. Twitter^[3] user @jaboukie tweeted, "Italians we won." The tweet received more than 755,000 likes and 113,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter^[4] user @shoe0nhead tweeted, "i feel represented thank u." The tweet received more than 6,600 likes and 300 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, center). The verified @NJGov Twitter^[5] accounted tweeted, "endorsed," and received more than 11,000 likes and 1,200 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the emoji, including Newsweek,^[6] CNN,^[7] The Daily Dot ^[8] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References