Vulcan salute

The Vulcan salute is a hand gesture popularized by the 1960s television series Star Trek. It consists of a raised hand with the palm forward and the thumb extended, while the fingers are parted between the middle and ring finger.

Leonard Nimoy demonstrating the Vulcan salutation at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention in 2011

Background

The Vulcan "salute" was devised by Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed the half Vulcan character Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek television series. A 1968 New York Times interview described the gesture as a "double-fingered version of Churchill's victory sign". Nimoy said in that interview that he "decided that the Vulcans were a "hand-oriented" people".[1]

The greeting first appeared in 1967 on the Star Trek second-season opening episode, "Amok Time". Among other things, the gesture is known for being difficult for certain people to do properly without practice or the covert pre-positioning of the fingers. Actors on the original show reportedly had to position their fingers off-screen with the other hand before raising their hand into frame. This difficulty may stem from variations in individuals' manual dexterity. It is parodied in the 1996 motion picture Star Trek: First Contact when Zefram Cochrane, upon meeting a Vulcan for the first time in human history, is unable to return the gesture and instead shakes the Vulcan's hand.

The blessing gesture which is the inspiration for the Vulcan salutation

In his 1975 autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy, who was Jewish, wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש in Square Script, or Paleo Hebrew 𐤔‎), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the gesture. The letter Shin here stands for El Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)", as well as for Shekhinah and Shalom. Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue, where he saw the blessing performed and was impressed by it.[2][3]

Others often greeted Nimoy with the Vulcan sign,[4] which became so well known that in June 2014 its emoji character was added to version 7 of the Unicode standard as U+1F596 🖖 RAISED HAND WITH PART BETWEEN MIDDLE AND RING FINGERS.[5][6] (The emoji's Common Locale Data Repository annotation has American English short name "vulcan salute" and keywords "finger", "hand", "spock" and "vulcan" [all lowercase].)[7]

U.S. President Barack Obama referenced the Vulcan salutation in his statement on Nimoy's death, calling it "the universal sign for 'Live long and prosper'".[8] The following day, NASA astronaut Terry W. Virts posted a photo on his Twitter feed from the International Space Station showing the salutation (with the Earth in the background) as the ISS passed over where Nimoy grew up – Boston, Massachusetts, United States.[9]

"Live long and prosper"

The accompanying spoken blessing, "live long and prosper" – "dif-tor heh smusma" in the Vulcan language (as spoken in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture) – also appeared for the first time in "Amok Time", scripted by Theodore Sturgeon.[10] The less-well-known reply is "peace and long life", though it is sometimes said first, with "live long and prosper" as the reply. The phrase has been seen abbreviated "LLAP".[11][12][13]

An ancient Egyptian blessing "ankh wedja seneb", while its verbatim translation is uncertain, uses the three symbols "life", "prosperity" and "health"; it has been translated as "may he live, be prosperous, be healthy".[14]

The New International Version of the Bible, Deuteronomy 5:33 (5:30 in the Masoretic Text), includes the phrase "live and prosper" as part of Moses' admonitions to the Hebrew people prior to entering Canaan; other translations include the notion of long life as well.[15]

William Shakespeare's 1594 Romeo and Juliet contains the line, "Live and be prosperous: and farewell good fellow", spoken by Romeo to Balthasar, his friend and servant.[16][17]

The benediction "live and prosper" is attributed to the 18th-century organized crime figure Jonathan Wild in his 1725 biography written by "H.D.", possibly a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe.[18]

In Trilby by George du Maurier, published in 1894, a description of an art student ends with the sentence, "May he live long and prosper!"[19]

The phrase is attributed to Stephen Crane by Willa Cather in her essay "When I Knew Stephen Crane", first published in 1900: "You have to have the itch of the thing in your fingers, and if you haven't,—well, you're damned lucky, and you'll live long and prosper, that's all."[20]

See also

References
  1. Diehl, Digby (August 25, 1968). "Girls All Want To Touch The Ears". The New York Times. p. 173. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  2. "Leonard Nimoy: "Star Trek" fans can be scary (archive.li)". Los Angeles Times. May 11, 2009. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  3. "An Interview with Leonard Nimoy". Rachael's Centre. January 22, 2020.
  4. Burr, Ty (February 27, 2015). "Leonard Nimoy, 83; was TV's iconic Mr. Spock". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  5. West, Andrew (October 20, 2013). "What's new in Unicode 7.0?". Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  6. "Unicode 7.0 introduces 2,834 new characters, including 250 emoji". Ars Technica. June 16, 2014.
  7. "CLDR v37.0β: Germanic Annotations". unicode.org. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  8. "Statement by the President on the Passing of Leonard Nimoy". whitehouse.gov. February 27, 2015 – via National Archives.
  9. @astroterry (February 28, 2015). "Vulcan Salute" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. "Theodore Sturgeon". Gary Westfahl's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Film. The SF Site. Archived from the original on September 13, 2009. Retrieved March 30, 2015. In that episode, [Sturgeon] also wrote one of the series' standard catchphrases, the Vulcan greeting 'Live long and prosper.'
  11. Leonard Nimoy [@TheRealNimoy] (February 22, 2015). "A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 6, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2015 – via Twitter.
  12. "Leonard Nimoy Dies at the age of 83". Renegade Cinema. February 27, 2015. Archived from the original on February 27, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  13. ""Star Trek" Star Leonard Nimoy Dead At 83". The Huffington Post. February 27, 2015. Archived from the original on March 31, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  14. Gardiner, Alan (1957). Egyptian Grammar. Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, p. 239
  15. New International Version, Holy Bible, Deuteronomy 5:33, copyright 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
  16. Act V. Sc iii. Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare, William. Folger Shakespeare Library Edition. 1992.
  17. Shakespeare, William (1594). "Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene 3 :|: Open Source Shakespeare". opensourceshakespeare.org. George Mason University. Archived from the original on September 29, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2015. Romeo: So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that: Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow.
  18. Originally published in 1725 by T. Warner in London.H. D. late Clerk to Justice - H. D., Defoe, Daniel, attributed name (October 2007) [1725]. The Life of Jonathan Wild, from His Birth to His Death (2nd ed.). Ann Arbor, MI, US: University of Michigan. p. 24. Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2015. Before the Sessions, Jonathan, tho' retain'd on the other Side of the Cause; visits Mr. Powell, tells him of the dangerous Circumstances he was in, and at the same Time enquires into the Value of his personal Estate; the Thief apprehended his meaning, and made him sensible that forty Pounds should not part them, (for it seems this Fellow never came into Jonathan's Books) whereupon the Bargain was struck, the Money paid down, and Mr. Wild left him with this Blessing, Live and prosper.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. George Du Maurier (2009) [1894]. Trilby. Oxford University Press. p. 99. Also, he went into good society sometimes, with a dress-coat on, and a white tie, and his hair parted in the middle! But in spite of these blemishes on his otherwise exemplary record as an art student, he was the most delightful companion - the most affectionate, helpful, and sympathetic of friends. May he live long and prosper!
  20. Cather, Willa (June 23, 1900). "When I Knew Stephen Crane". The Library.
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Look up vulcan salute in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • "An Interview with Leonard Nimoy". Rachael's Centre. January 22, 2020.
  • Gershom, Yonassan (2009). Jewish Themes in Star Trek. Archived from the original on July 5, 2012. Retrieved February 28, 2015. A page by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, with photos and diagrams of how the Salute forms the Hebrew letter Shin, the use of the Blessing Hands gesture on Jewish gravestones and jewelry, etc.
  • Yiddish Book Center (February 27, 2015). "Nimoy Explains Origin of Vulcan Greeting". Wexler Oral History Project. Remembering Leonard Nimoy. The New York Times. Leonard Nimoy on the Jewish provenance and cultural impact of the Vulcan salute
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