Turkish · Hand Gestures · hand gesture
Nah! (yumruk-baş parmak)
Up yours! / You'll get NOTHING! / Not a chance in hell
genuinely rude; friends only, never at work
The gesture
"Fist with the thumb poked out between the index and middle fingers, thrust toward someone; usually barked with the word 'Nah!'"
What your hand is actually doing.
How to use it
The fig sign — thumb wedged between two fingers, jabbed forward — is Turkey's flagship obscene gesture, meaning an emphatic, contemptuous refusal: you're getting nothing, forget it, up yours. Almost always paired with a shouted "Nah!" (which alone, without the hand, still means "yeah, right — no chance"). Genuinely rude; fine ranting among friends, a provocation at a stranger. Do not deploy it as a cute "OK"-style gesture the way it reads in some other countries.
Heard in the wild
Borcunu ödeyecek mi? Nah ödeyecek!
Is he going to pay you back? Like hell he is!
Where it lands
Turkey-wide; universal
Quick answers
- What does "Nah! (yumruk-baş parmak)" mean?
- In Turkish, "Nah! (yumruk-baş parmak)" means "Up yours! / You'll get NOTHING! / Not a chance in hell". Literally it's "Fist with the thumb poked out between the index and middle fingers, thrust toward someone; usually barked with the word 'Nah!'". The fig sign — thumb wedged between two fingers, jabbed forward — is Turkey's flagship obscene gesture, meaning an emphatic, contemptuous refusal: you're getting nothing, forget it, up yours. Almost always paired with a shouted "Nah!" (which alone, without the hand, still means "yeah, right — no chance"). Genuinely rude; fine ranting among friends, a provocation at a stranger. Do not deploy it as a cute "OK"-style gesture the way it reads in some other countries.
- Is "Nah! (yumruk-baş parmak)" offensive?
- It's genuinely rude — a 3/5 (Watch your audience) on the Punch-o-Meter. Fine among friends, never at work or with people you've just met.
- How do you pronounce "Nah! (yumruk-baş parmak)"?
- This one's a hand gesture — there's nothing to pronounce. Fist with the thumb poked out between the index and middle fingers, thrust toward someone; usually barked with the word 'Nah!'.
Related in Turkish
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "No way".
- French Oh la vache ! Holy cow! / Wow! / Whoa!
- German Quatsch! Nonsense! / Rubbish! / No way!
- Greek έλα ρε Come on! / No way! / You're kidding — disbelief, protest, or delight depending on tone.
- Italian Dai! Come on! / Come off it! / Please!
- Japanese マジ Seriously / for real / no joke
- Korean 헐 Whoa / no way / I can't even — the all-purpose stunned noise.
- Polish no co ty! No way! / Come on! / You can't be serious.
- Portuguese Porra nenhuma! Bullshit! / Like hell! / Not a damn thing
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.