#Open mouth popshot how to#

The smile, like laughter, is unique to humankind. A universal expression, according to Darwin, in “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,” 1872. 10, 11, 12.ġ0 / to open one’s mouth, raise one’s eyebrows, and widen one’s eyesĪstonishment. Called la babou in French, named for a witch with great big lips. “Panurge bobbed and made mouths at him in token of derision” (Rabelais, “The Works of Rabelais, Book IV,” trans. But also mockery with regard to a pretentious individual.ĩ / to insert the index finger into the mouth and use it to make the cheek “pop” A gesture that signifies drinking straight from a bottle or wineskin: “Bring me something to drink! I’m thirsty!”Ĩ / to feign putting one’s lips to a trumpet formed by the closed fist, thumb turned toward the mouth, little finger stuck out to the front. 7, 8, 9.ħ / to raise a half-closed fist with the pinky jutting out to the front, the thumb turned toward the mouth, head tipped back

Arab world, but has equally been adopted in monasteries. A gesture of eloquence employed by the great orators of antiquity.Ī regional variant of the previous example. A gesture of eloquence.ĥ / to bring one’s hand toward one’s mouth without quite touching it “I need something to drink! I’m thirsty!” 4, 5, 6.Ĥ / to bring one’s hand toward one’s mouth as if to hold in one’s speech This is the most widespread sign of hunger, used to ask for food to eat.ģ / to bring one’s hand to one’s mouth in the shape of a small vessel, the thumb and index finger touching in a circle, the whole in imitation of a cup from which to drink Malleson, 1877Ģ / to bring two or three fingers, pinched together, to the mouth several times Jules Verne, “A Journey into the Interior of the Earth,” trans. “Then recommending me, by an impressive gesture, to keep silence, he went into the boat which awaited him.” In the Arab world, one blows on the finger.

#Open mouth popshot how to#

The mouth also knows how to keep quiet: It is upon the mouth that the monkey of Chinese wisdom places its hands to signify that silence is always worth more than an imprudent word.ġ / to touch the index finger to one’s lips I would have very much liked to find out through what mechanism it was that the contact of two mouths brought about sensual pleasure: often, looking at the lips of a young man or a young woman, I was amazed.

The mouth can be mysterious and arouse fantasies, which Simone de Beauvoir acknowledged in her book “Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter”: The French also have the expression la bouche en cul de poule, which literally means “to have a chicken’s ass for a mouth,” but idiomatically indicates that someone has put on a honeyed or fawning look, puckering his lips or not, in the hopes of getting what he wants. As Raymond Queneau puts it in “Loin de Rueil”: “He coldly left like in a transitional scene, just like that, in the night, mouth in heart, without a word.” Typically, in French, this means to put on airs or to simper. Whereas in English, to have your heart in your mouth means to be very nervous, in French, it is inverted and has a different meaning. This article is excerpted from François Caradec’s book “ Dictionary of Gestures“