Is it a way to show disbelief, a way to ask others to be quiet, or a cute gesture popularised by a K-Pop star? It's called "pinched fingers" and depending on where you are in the world, a new emoji announced by the Unicode Consortium, which approves standard emojis worldwide, could have a completely different meaning. Its official purpose, according to the emoji's creators, is to represent the way an Italian might ask "what do you want?".
But that has not stopped its differing interpretations worldwide since the icon was debuted in January 2020. In a 14-page proposal for the emoji, creators of the "pinched fingers" icon suggested that the gesture would be representative of Italian culture because "everybody knows Italians speak with their hands" - but may have other meanings elsewhere.
