When they say,(in a book) "they shook their head" is that a yes or a no?

Question

oh ok cuz when ppl shake i think of how u shake something so i comes out [ up and down]

oh ok cuz when ppl shake i think of how u shake something so i comes out [ up and down]

Answer 1

It can also depend on the setting since, in certain parts of the world (some Eastern European countries, some Middle Eastern countries) shaking one's head from side to side indicates "Yes", while nodding one's head in an up and down motion inducates "No."

"Why do we nod our heads for "yes" and shake them for "no," instead of the other way around? Are there any peoples who reverse the gestures? --Have to Know, Chicago

Cecil replies:

Believe it or not, H., some people think this is a silly question. Little do they know. No less a personage than Charles Darwin looked into it and wrote up his findings in a book called The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). Darwin was interested in finding out whether there were universal gestures and expressions, so he sent out a questionnaire to missionaries and whatnot that, among other things, asked what gesticulations the locals used to convey "yes" and "no." Nodding and head-shaking turned out to be pretty common, but there were some striking exceptions. For example, certain Australian natives, when uttering a negative, "don't shake the head, but holding up the right hand, shake it by turning it half round and back again two or three times." One Captain Speedy--I can't say the name inspires much confidence--told Darwin that the Abyssinians said "no" by jerking the head to the right shoulder and making a slight cluck, while "yes" was expressed by the head being thrown backwards and the eyebrows raised for an instant. The Dyaks of Borneo supposedly raised their eyebrows for "yes" and slightly contracted them, "together with a peculiar look of the eyes," for "no." Eskimoes nodded for "yes" and winked for "no."

The only place I know of where they completely reverse the meaning of our nod and head-shake gestures is Bulgaria. There a nod means no and a shake means yes. One shudders to think of the implications this has for cross-cultural dating in that country. The Turks are almost as confusing--they say "yes" by shaking their heads from side to side, and "no" by tossing their heads back and clucking. Head-tossing for "no" is also common in Greece and parts of Italy, such as Naples, that were colonized or heavily influenced by Greeks in ancient times.

Still, cultures ranging from the Chinese to the natives of Guinea nod and shake their heads like we do, leading Darwin to believe that the gestures were innate to some extent. He noticed that when babies refused food they almost always turned their heads to the side, whereas when they had worked up an appetite they inclined their heads forward in a nodding gesture.

Other gestures are much more arbitrary. One of the most notorious of these is making a circle with thumb and forefinger, which to to Americans and most Europeans means "OK." In Brazil, however, and some other places, it means something on the order of "screw you." (The actual term is more pungent, you understand.) Cecil learned this to his sorrow on a little jaunt he made to Sao Paulo some years ago. I seldom make the OK gesture at home, but once I got down south and learned its obscene significance I felt a sudden compulsion to make it 20 or 30 times a day, thus antagonizing Brazilians by the thousands. It was only with the most determined effort that I was able to stifle this low impulse and make the thumbs-up sign that, in Rio as in the U.S., signifies everything's copacetic.

Which reminds me. You probably think we make the thumbs-up gesture because that's what the Romans used to do when they wanted to spare a fallen gladiator, right? Wrong--that's a myth based on a succession of mistranslations. The truth is when the Romans were feeling merciful they hid their thumbs in their clenched fists (symbolically sheathing their swords, some historians believe). To have a guy offed they didn't turn thumbs down but rather extended their thumbs in a stabbing gesture. For whatever reason, though, thumbs-up today means OK just about everywhere--except in Sardinia or Greece, where it means "screw you." I'm told that for rookie travelers this makes hitchhiking in Athens a pretty lively experience. Caveat viator."

But that aside, I've seen "shaking one's head" to mean "Yes" in some books and "No" in most.

Answer 2

Shaking the head means NO and nodding the head means YES.

Answer 3

You have to refer "the shake." both to what sentences and or thoughts come before and after "the shake." happens.

If it fails to allude to an answer either way, then it is either a part of a hidden plot or reasoning, geographically or culturally assumed or poorly written, plain and simple.

Answer 4

"Shake your head" is understood to mean "no," while "yes" is called "nodding your head." But of course, when we know which way we mean, sometimes we get careless with these terms.

Answer 5

You shake your head no..you nod your head for yes.

Answer 6

It means no. Nodding means yes

Answer 7

it's a no, usually in a book when they're referring to a yes it's a nod

Answer 8

shake is no.

nod is yes.

Answer 9

I usually think it means "no" but I've seen it used both ways.

Answer 10

mostly iI take it for a no but now that you have mentioned it I mght have been wrong all along!