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𝡜

signwriting hand-flat heel

SignWriting Hand-Flat Heel

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𝡜 records a flat hand viewed from its heel, or wrist, side; it is one handshape symbol in SignWriting, a way to write sign languages. It cannot identify a complete sign by itself: the other symbols and their two-dimensional placement add movement, location, and contact. Alone, it is a notation fragment. In a box, the font may lack the character.

Text symbol

What 𝡜 means

It marks the handshape; other symbols complete the sign.

SignWriting is a writing system used for many sign languages. This character identifies a flat hand from the heel—the wrist end of the hand—rather than a word with a fixed translation. Movement, contact, location, and nearby symbols supply the rest of a sign.

SignWriting grew out of DanceWriting, a movement notation Valerie Sutton made for ballet in 1966. Copenhagen researchers asked her to adapt it for signs and gestures recorded on video in 1974. Feedback from Deaf readers in the early 1980s helped it become a general-purpose writing system for sign languages.

Why does 𝡜 look incomplete?

A handshape is one component of a SignWriting sign.

A written sign arranges symbols in two dimensions. Their placement can show how the hand relates to movement, contact, location, the face, and the body, so a lone 𝡜 leaves the rest of the sign unspecified.

A font with SignWriting support can draw this character. Without one, it may appear as a blank box. A complete sign also needs an editor or renderer that handles the two-dimensional layout.

This is specialist notation for writing sign languages; sending one symbol assumes the recipient can read SignWriting.

A lone 𝡜 does not identify a complete sign.

Part of the collection

𝠀
Sutton SignWriting
Explore 664 more →

What it means when someone sends it to you

2 readings

A handshape sample or unfinished SignWriting fragment.

Don't confuse it with

1
□
White Square
A blank box means the active font cannot draw this SignWriting character. It is not another handshape.

Questions people ask

1

Why does 𝡜 show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.

How to type or find 𝡜

Search it as
SignWriting · SWU · FSW · SignWriting handshape · flat hand heel · heel-side hand · U+1D85C · SignWriting font
Shows up in
Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
Windows (Word)
⎇Alt+XType 1D85C, then AltX to get 𝡜.
Windows
⊞Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win .).
macOS
⌃Control+⌘Command+␣SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “signwriting hand-flat heel”.
Linux
⎈Ctrl+⇧Shift+UType 1d85c, then Enter or Space.
HTML
𝡜
CSS
\1D85C
How do I type 𝡜?
Use a Unicode input method that accepts a code point and enter U1D85C; the keystrokes vary by operating system.
Build a full sign
SWU and FSW are two text encodings for complete SignWriting signs. Use an editor that arranges the sign's symbols in two dimensions; 𝡜 records one handshape.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
𝡜
HTML hex
𝡜
CSS content
content: "\1D85C";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%F0%9D%A1%9C
1
On screen
1
Code points
2
JS .length
4
UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

1

Other writing systems815 symbols

𛰀𛰁𛰂𛰃𛰄𛰅𛰆𛰇𛰈𛰉𛰊𛰋