August 27, 2005

Slang Sighting: Thumbs Up

Illiterate, uneducated. A reference to the Hindi idiom 'angootha chhaap', which describes illiterate individuals who place thumb impressions on documents in lieu of signatures.
"Most of these people including me are 'thumbs up' (uneducated)," said a 37-year-old Gujarati trader. (Hindustan Times, August 26, 2005)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Odd choice of name for the coke-drink then!

R Devraj said...

Thums Up? That's been around longer than this bit of slang, I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

I adore the Hindi idiom 'Kaala akshar bhains baraabar' referring to the same thing. For Non-Hindi speakers, that means 'a black letter and a buffalo are one and the same (to the illiterate)'

R Devraj said...

There's also 'akal badi ki bhains' which translates as 'Which one's bigger, the brain or a buffalo?' - implying that the illiterate would choose buffaloes over brains.