V-signn.
/ˈviːsʌɪn/, U.S. /ˈviˌsaɪn/ 1.
a. The letter V used as a written symbol of victory during the war of 1939–45.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > victory > [noun] > sign of victory > specific written symbol
V-sign1941
1941 W. S. Churchill Unrelenting Struggle (1942) 198 The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories, and a portent of the fate awaiting the Nazi tyranny.
b. The Morse Code representation of this letter or the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which have the same rhythm. Also transferred.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > duration of notes > proportion of notes or rhythm > [noun] > morse code representation
V-sign1959
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telegraphy > [noun] > telegraphic message > code > Morse code > signs in
dot1838
dash1859
long1867
short1891
dah1942
dit1942
V-sign1959
1959 Listener 24 Sept. 489/2 The start of the ‘V-sign’ by Victor de Lavelaye of the Belgian Section [of the B.B.C.] in July 1941.
1972 Times 26 Sept. 4/8 The old V-sign, first used for the Belgian service in 1941, was a low-frequency signal.
1978 L. Thomas Ormerod's Landing v. 95 There came a V-sign knock on the street door.
2.
a. = victory sign n. at victory n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > victory > [noun] > sign of victory > specific gesture
V-sign1942
1942 H. Nicolson Diary 23 Apr. (1967) 224 Winston..gives the V-sign to an audience which does not greet him with any tumultuous applause.
1943 A. Moorehead End in Afr. xiv. 148 They gave the V sign, they shouted and waved flags, the girls kissed the soldiers and the men ran out with bottles of wine and fruit.
b. A similar gesture made with the back of the hand outwards as an obscene gesture of contempt (see also quots. 1948, 1973).
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the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > [noun] > action of expressing contempt > by gesture > specific gesture
ficoa1577
fig1579
tweak1616
V-sign1948
two fingers1971
Harvey Smith1973
1948 E. Partridge et al. Dict. Forces' Slang 202 V-sign, the first and middle fingers uplifted in the form of the letter V, for victory. When the hand making the sign was jerked upwards, it was a sign of recognition between two acquaintances passing on a road, or of complete disagreement with the statements or actions of another, adequately replacing a vulgar monosyllable of the same significance.
1959 Spectator 4 Sept. 297/2 Congreve's Double Dealer is a sex-play... To his immediate predecessors the dirty joke was still a political gesture, a deliberately ambiguous V-sign which semaphored both political and marital freedom.
1973 Daily Tel. 29 Nov. 3/8 Two ‘louts’..taunted him outside his home by shouting obscenities and making V-signs.
1981 B. Hines Looks & Smiles 36 They turned round and gave him the V-sign generously with both hands..the gatekeeper hurried inside his office and slammed the door.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1941