Right-Facing Fist

A fist bump: respect, congrats or “I'm with you”. A fist bump is the casual greeting where two people tap closed fists together instead of shaking hands or high-fiving. In chats the pair does the same job: good game, we did it, nice one, a quick cheer in group threads and sports or gaming talk. 🤜 and 🤛 are separate emoji, so the bump shows only when both appear. Either order works, though 🤜🤛 draws the knuckles meeting in the middle.

Where does the fist bump come from?

From sport and Black American greeting culture. Athletes were tapping fists by around 1970; a photo from April 1969 shows Yankees outfielder Roy White offering Bobby Murcer a fist after a home run. The bump is kin to dap, a longer greeting of handclasps and fist taps that Black American soldiers in Vietnam developed in the late 1960s as a sign of solidarity. In American English “dap” can mean that whole greeting or just the bump, and “pound” is another name for it.

In June 2008 Barack and Michelle Obama bumped fists on stage as he claimed the Democratic nomination. A TV anchor floated the phrase “terrorist fist jab”, the backlash made headlines, and the gesture reached a far wider audience. In 2020 it gained ground again as a greeting without a handshake.

What does it mean when someone sends just 🤜?

It depends on the chat around it. In a happy or hyped-up thread a lone 🤜 is a nudge, a “let's go” or a fist held out, and 🤛 is an easy reply. After bickering, or next to fight talk, the same fist reads more like a mock punch or a challenge. If you can't tell, answering 🤛 turns it into a bump.