FromLatingesticulatus, past participle ofgesticulari(“to gesticulate”), fromgesticulus(“a mimic gesture”), diminutive ofgestus(“gesture”), fromgerere, gestum(“to bear, carry, perform”).
gesticulate (third-person singular simple presentgesticulates,present participlegesticulating,simple past and past participlegesticulated)
- (intransitive) To makegestures ormotions, as in speaking.
1876 January, “A Week among the Maoris of Lake Taupo”, inThe Cornhill Magazine, volume XXXIII, number193, London:Smith, Elder & Co., 15Waterloo Place,→OCLC,page65:A "Haka" is the native dance, answering to thecorroboree of the Australian aboriginals, and we were anxious to see it.[…] Later in the evening, however, the complaisant Herekiekie entertained a small and select party at a "Haka" in his "whare" or house (pronounced wharry). It was exactly what I expected. The performers, all male, stood in a row, one, slightly advanced, acting as fugleman. They shouted andgesticulated with the most hideous and revolting gestures, grimaces, and yells.
1954,Kingsley Amis, chapter 12, inLucky Jim:... groups of dancers were wheeling, plunging, andgesticulating while the ogre, more aphasic than before, mumbled at full strength ...
2005 January 30, Ariel Love, “Half empty”, inThe Guardian[1]:He's delusional, and obsessed with a girl named Claire, and he says such things as: "I know she loves me, she just doesn't know it yet." And hegesticulates wildly, as though he were a fop in the court of Louis XIV.
- (transitive) To say or express through gestures.
2004 December 6,Irish Times:[…]the TV programmeFriends is influencing not only the way Irish people speak but also how theygesticulate. Now almost every utterance is accompanied by arms outstretched and palms turned upwards."
to express through gestures
Translations to be checked
gesticulate
- second-personsingular voseoimperative ofgesticular combined withte
