To steeple one's fingers

[Lucas Moreno]

Hello everyone,

What does "he steepled his fingers" mean? I can't find this word as a verb
in any dictionary...

"He unfolded his fingers" or something like it?

Thanks a lot,

Lucas

[Evertjan.]

Post by Lucas Moreno
What does "he steepled his fingers" mean? I can't find this word as a
verb in any dictionary...
"He unfolded his fingers" or something like it?

From a nursery rhyme:

<http://ingeb.org/songs/hereisth.html>

[Lucas Moreno]

Well, thanks for the link, but is this a famous song in anglo-saxon culture?
And is the finger-trick that goes along with it famous too?

Thanks for the information,

Lucas

Post by Evertjan.

Post by Lucas Moreno
What does "he steepled his fingers" mean? I can't find this word as a
verb in any dictionary...
"He unfolded his fingers" or something like it?

<http://ingeb.org/songs/hereisth.html>
--
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Replace all crosses with dots in my emailaddress)

[Evertjan.]

Post by Lucas Moreno

Post by Evertjan.

Post by Lucas Moreno
What does "he steepled his fingers" mean? I can't find this word as
a verb in any dictionary...
"He unfolded his fingers" or something like it?

<http://ingeb.org/songs/hereisth.html>

[please do not toppost on usenet]

Post by Lucas Moreno
Well, thanks for the link, but is this a famous song in anglo-saxon culture?

Nursery rhymes are.

Post by Lucas Moreno
And is the finger-trick that goes along with it famous too?

Your guess is as good as mine.

[Nigel Greenwood]

Post by Lucas Moreno
Well, thanks for the link, but is this a famous song in anglo-saxon culture?

It is in the UK. It's not a song: it's a little rhyme.

Post by Lucas Moreno
And is the finger-trick that goes along with it famous too?

Yes: in fact the rhyme is pointless without the gestures.

The verb "to steeple" (the fingers) is given in this sense in the OED,
& has a wider application than just the nursery rhyme. Some people
(lawyers, perhaps, among others) tend to steeple their fingers when
making a point very slowly & deliberately -- or didactically.

Nigel

--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical
Greek/IPA/Persian/Russian/Turkish):
http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk

[Nick Worley]

Post by Lucas Moreno
Well, thanks for the link, but is this a famous song in anglo-saxon culture?

It's a very well-known rhyme (as opposed to a song) in England.
Having said that, I'd only ever heard the first two lines of the rhyme
before seeing that website Evertjan posted.

Post by Lucas Moreno
And is the finger-trick that goes along with it famous too?

I heard the rhyme with the accompanying finger movements many times growing
up.

It's called "steepling", as the website says, because the two little fingers
are raised and placed together to look like a church steeple.
I'd always seen it done where the two first fingers were also raised (after
the little fingers) to make another larger steeple (or were they the front
of the church? Whatever, something like that anyway).

No comparison to a PlayStation or X-Box -- I must've been easily amused as a
kid!!

Regards
Nick

[Harlan Messinger]

Post by Lucas Moreno
Well, thanks for the link, but is this a famous song in anglo-saxon culture?
And is the finger-trick that goes along with it famous too?

Yes.

[Ekkehard Dengler]

Post by Lucas Moreno
Hello everyone,
What does "he steepled his fingers" mean? I can't find this word as a verb
in any dictionary...
"He unfolded his fingers" or something like it?

Hi Lucas.

Try doing a Google image search for "steepled fingers". HTH.

Regards,
Ekkehard

[m***@hotmail.com]

For future reference, "steepled fingers" has a Google Image result of
somebody with steepled fingers (a black and white photo of a girl), but
"steepling fingers" has only one result of somebody with his fingers
folded together and only the index fingers steepling.

[Peter Twydell]

Post by Lucas Moreno
Hello everyone,
What does "he steepled his fingers" mean? I can't find this word as a verb
in any dictionary...
"He unfolded his fingers" or something like it?
Thanks a lot,
Lucas

Unless I've missed something, nobody has actually described steepling.
With fingers pointing upwards, touch the tips of the fingers and thumb
of one hand against the corresponding tips on the other.

HTH

[Nigel Greenwood]

Post by Peter Twydell
Unless I've missed something, nobody has actually described steepling.
With fingers pointing upwards, touch the tips of the fingers and thumb
of one hand against the corresponding tips on the other.

As it happens, I've just come across this description of steepling in
Ch 39 of Bleak House:

Vholes, sitting with his arms on the desk, quietly bringing the tips of
his five right fingers to meet the tips of his five left fingers, and
quietly separating them again, and fixedly and slowly looking at his
client, replies, "A good deal is doing, sir. We have put our shoulders
to the wheel, Mr. Carstone, and the wheel is going round."

Nigel

--
ScriptMaster language resources (Chinese/Modern & Classical
Greek/IPA/Persian/Russian/Turkish):
http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk

[Edward Hennessey]

Post by Nigel Greenwood

Post by Peter Twydell
Unless I've missed something, nobody has actually described steepling.
With fingers pointing upwards, touch the tips of the fingers and thumb
of one hand against the corresponding tips on the other.

As it happens, I've just come across this description of steepling in
Vholes, sitting with his arms on the desk, quietly bringing the tips of
his five right fingers to meet the tips of his five left fingers, and
quietly separating them again, and fixedly and slowly looking at his
client, replies, "A good deal is doing, sir. We have put our shoulders
to the wheel, Mr. Carstone, and the wheel is going round."
Nigel

It may be worth the note that people who study such things consider this
gesture to most often signal superiority.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey