Vulcan salute: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia


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{{shortShort description|Hand gesture popularized by Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy}}

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[[File:Leonard Nimoy, 2011, ST Con-2 C.jpg|thumb|right|[[Leonard Nimoy]] demonstrating the Vulcan salutation at the Las Vegas ''Star Trek'' Convention in 2011]]

The '''Vulcan salute''' is a [[hand gesture]] popularized by the [[1960s]] television series called [[Star Trek: The Original Series|''Star Trek'']]. It consists of a raised hand with the palm forward and the thumb extended, while the [[finger]]s are parted between the middle and [[ring finger]]. The gesture was devised by ''Star Trek'' actor [[Leonard Nimoy]] as a salute for the alien [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan]] species, and is popular within the [[Science fiction fandom]] and [[nerd culture]]. The blessing phrase "'''live long and prosper'''" (written by [[Theodore Sturgeon]]) is frequently spoken alongside it.

==Background==

The Vulcan "salute" was devised by [[Leonard Nimoy]], who portrayed the [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|half Vulcan]] character [[Spock|Mr. Spock]] on the original ''Star Trek'' television series. A 1968 ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' interview described the gesture as a "double-fingered version of [[Winston Churchill|Churchill's]] [[victory sign]]". Nimoy said in that interview that he "decided that the Vulcans were a '"hand-oriented'" people".<ref name="diehl19680825">{{cite news|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/08/25/91290697.html?pageNumber=173|title=Girls All Want To Touch The Ears|work=The New York Times|date=1968-08-25|access-date=27 February 2015|author=Diehl, Digby|page=173}}</ref>

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.

[[File:Synagoge, Enschede, Mozaiek.jpg|thumb|left|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 [[Judaism|Jewish]] [[Kohen|Kohanim]] with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] letter [[Shin (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 Judaism|Orthodox]] synagogue, where he saw the blessing performed and was impressed by it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2009/05/11/leonard-nimoy-star-trek-fans-can-be-scary/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710035730/http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2009/05/11/leonard-nimoy-star-trek-fans-can-be-scary/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 10, 2012|title=Leonard Nimoy: '"Star Trek'" fans can be scary (archive.li)|work=Los Angeles Times|date=May 11, 2009|access-date=January 1, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgRktkvEXrM|title=An Interview with Leonard Nimoy|publisher=Rachael's Centre|date=Jan 22, 2020}}</ref>

Others often greeted Nimoy with the Vulcan sign,<ref name="burr20150227">{{cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/02/27/leonard-nimoy-spock-star-trek-became-cultural-icon/yYSDjlNOdmp7kh5mFQJq1O/story.html|title=Leonard Nimoy, 83; was TV's iconic Mr. Spock|work=The Boston Globe|date=2015-02-27|access-date=1 March 2015|author=Burr, Ty}}</ref> which became so well known that in June 2014 its [[emoji]] character was added to version 7 of the [[Unicode]] standard as {{unichar|1F596|RAISED HAND WITH PART BETWEEN MIDDLE AND RING FINGERS}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2013/10/whats-new-in-unicode-70.html|last=West|first=Andrew|author-link=Andrew West (linguist)|title=What's new in Unicode 7.0?|date=October 20, 2013|access-date=January 17, 2014|archive-date=November 9, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109233024/http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2013/10/whats-new-in-unicode-70.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/unicode-7-0-introduces-2834-new-characters-including-250-emoji/|title=Unicode 7.0 introduces 2,834 new characters, including 250 emoji|work=Ars Technica|date=June 16, 2014 }}</ref> (The emoji's [[Common Locale Data Repository]] annotation has [[American English]] short name "vulcan salute" and keywords "finger", "hand", "spock" and "vulcan" [all lowercase].)<ref>{{cite web|title=CLDR v37.0β: Germanic Annotations|url=https://unicode.org/cldr/charts/dev/annotations/germanic.html#%F0%9F%96%96|website=unicode.org|access-date=26 April 2020}}</ref>

[[President of the United States|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'".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/27/statement-president-passing-leonard-nimoy|via=[[NARA|National Archives]]|work=[[whitehouse.gov]]|title=Statement by the President on the Passing of Leonard Nimoy|date=February 27, 2015 }}</ref> 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 - {{snd}}[[Boston, Massachusetts]], United States.<ref>{{cite tweet|user=astroterry|number=571700996360970241|date=28 Feb 2015|title=Vulcan Salute}}</ref>

=="Live long and prosper"==

{{anchor|Live long and prosper}}

The accompanying spoken blessing, "live long and prosper"&nbsp;–, ''"dif-torwas hehalso smusma"''first used in the"Amok [[VulcanTime" (Star Trek)#Language|Vulcan language]] (as spoken inalongside the 1979 film ''[[Star Trek:salute. The Motionphrase Picture]]'')&nbsp;– also appeared for the first time in "[[Amok Time]]",was scripted by [[Theodore Sturgeon]].<ref name = besff-stur1>{{cite encyclopedia

| url = http://www.sfsite.com/gary/stur01.htm <!-- | date = unk 1999-2015? -->

| title = Theodore Sturgeon

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| access-date = 2015-03-30

| quote = In that episode, [Sturgeon] also wrote one of the series' standard catchphrases, the Vulcan greeting 'Live long and prosper.'

}}</ref> A Vulcan translation &ndash; "''dif-tor heh smusma''" &ndash; was introduced in the 1979 film ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture]]''.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} 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".<ref name = tw-trn-2015-2>{{cite tweet |user=TheRealNimoy |author = Leonard Nimoy |number=569762773204217857 |date=February 22, 2015 |title=A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306101929/https://twitter.com/TheRealNimoy/status/569762773204217857 |archive-date = March 6, 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=March 4, 2015}}</ref><ref name = rc-ln-2015-02>{{Cite news

| url = http://renegadecinema.com/36212/leonard-nimoy-dies-at-the-age-of-83

| title = Leonard Nimoy Dies at the age of 83

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}}</ref><ref name = hp-ln-2015-02>{{cite news

| url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/27/leonard-nimoy-dead_n_6770032.html

| title = '"Star Trek'" Star Leonard Nimoy Dead At 83

| date = 2015-02-27

| work = [[The Huffington Post]]

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}}</ref>

===Similar blessings===

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.".<ref name = ag-eg-1957>Gardiner, Alan (1957). ''Egyptian Grammar''. Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, p. 239</ref>

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.<ref name="niv-deu-5-33-1">New International Version, Holy Bible, Deuteronomy 5:33, copyright 2011 by Biblica, Inc.</ref>

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| first= William

| author-link = William Shakespeare

| title = Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene 3 :&#124;{{pipe}}: Open Source Shakespeare

| year = 1594

| website = opensourceshakespeare.org

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}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{Cite magazine

|title=When I Knew [[Stephen Crane]]

|first=Willa

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File:ISS-42_Samantha_Cristoforetti_Leonard_Nimoy_tribute.jpg|On February 28, 2015, [[European Space Agency]] astronaut [[Samantha Cristoforetti]] [[Twitter#Tweets|tweeted]] this photo in a final salute to Leonard Nimoy. Her tee shirt is adorned with a [[Starfleet]] insignia.

File:George_Takei_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg|[[George Takei]], a colleague of Nimoy who portrayed the ''Star Trek'' character [[Hikaru Sulu]] in the original series, salutes a crowd in 2011.

File:Star Trek Beyond Japan Premiere Red Carpet- Simon Pegg (cropped).jpg|''[[Star Trek (2009 film)|Star Trek]]'' actor and writer [[Simon Pegg]] giving a Vulcan greeting in 2016.

</gallery>

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==External links==

{{wikiquote}}

{{Commons category|Vulcan salute}}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Memoryalpha|Vulcan salute}}

* {{Citecite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgRktkvEXrM |title=An Interview with Leonard Nimoy |publisher=Rachael's Centre |date=Jan 22, 2020}}

* {{cite book |last1=Gershom |first1=Yonassan |title=Jewish Themes in Star Trek |url=http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html |access-date=28 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120705000529/http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html |archive-date=2012-07-05 |date=2009}} 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.

* {{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/video/obituaries/100000003536154/nimoy-explains-origin-of-vulcan-greeting.html |date= Feb 27, 2015 |title= Nimoy Explains Origin of Vulcan Greeting |publisher= The New York Times |series= Remembering Leonard Nimoy |author= Yiddish Book Center |work= Wexler Oral History Project |quote= Leonard Nimoy on the Jewish provenance and cultural impact of the Vulcan salute }}

{{Gestures}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vulcan Salute}}

[[Category:PriestlyFictional Blessingsymbols]]

[[Category:Vulcans|Salute]]▼

[[Category:Greetings]]

[[Category:Hand gestures]]

[[Category:Salutes]]▼

[[Category:Leonard Nimoy]]

[[Category:FictionalPriestly symbolsBlessing]]

▲[[Category:Salutes]]

▲[[Category:Vulcans|Salute]]