Reversed Thumbs Up Sign

It is a thumbs-up sign with the hand reversed.

Use it as approval only when the surrounding words confirm that reading. Unicode’s chart links it to the ordinary thumbs-up; a 2011 Unicode proposal maps it to the Wingdings 2 thumb glyph w-2060. Wingdings 2 is an early-1990s symbol-font family used for icons in documents and interfaces. Unicode’s stated benefit was making such legacy font symbols searchable and interoperable as text. The encoding date belongs to the computer character, not the gesture.

The hand gesture has a separate, older, messier history. Roman texts describe hostile or turned thumbs; some reliefs show a thumb pressed into a fist when a defeated fighter was spared. Corbeill’s interpretation distinguishes those ancient signals from the modern positive gesture. The first positive English use cited by the OED is around 1917. That history explains the gesture, not a hidden meaning for this uncommon text sign.

Someone sent me 🖒—what should I read?

Read it as approval only when context confirms it.

As a font-rendered text character, 🖒 has a monochrome drawing that can look unfamiliar beside the standard reaction 👍. A recipient may read it as a backwards hand or a deliberate typographic joke. In a work thread or another exchange where clarity matters, 👍 is easier to recognize. Save 🖒 for a symbol comparison, font reference, or deliberate oddity.