elbow bump

English

WOTD – 7 March 2023

Etymology

An elbow bump (sense 3) between Barack Obama, the President of the United States, and two women in Washington, D.C., in December 2012. Obama did not shake hands with them as he had just rubbed sanitizer on his hands.

Dominique Hasler, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport of Liechtenstein (left), and Adaljiza Magno, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of East Timor, exchanging an elbow bump (sense 3) at the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council during the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2022.

From elbow +‎ bump, modelled on fist bump.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɛlbəʊ ˈbʌmp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɛlboʊ ˈbʌmp/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp
• Hyphenation: el‧bow bump

Noun

elbow bump (plural elbow bumps)

1. A hit to the elbow; also, an injury to the elbow caused by such a hit.
2. A hit or jab made with the elbow.
4. The touching of elbows between two people, sometimes as an alternative to a handshake, fist bump, or other form of contact when attempting to avoid the spread of germs.

   Synonyms: elbow shake, elbow tap

   • 2006 February 12, Donald G[erard] McNeil, Jr., “Elbows to the ready if outbreak emerges: Bird flu would rule out handshakes”, in International Herald Tribune‎^[1], Paris: International Herald Tribune, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2007-02-17:

     To the pantheon of social arbiters who came up with the firm handshake, the formal bow and the air kiss, get ready to add a new fashion god: the World Health Organization, chief advocate of the "elbow bump." […] The bump, a simple touching of elbows, is a substitute for the filthy practice of shaking hands, in which a person who has politely sneezed into a palm then passes a virus to other hands, whose owners then put a finger in an eye or a pen in a mouth.

   • 2020 March 4, Adrianna Rodriguez, “Goodbye, handshake. Hello, elbow bump? Greetings to avoid during the coronavirus outbreak”, in USA Today‎^[2], McLean, Va.: Gannett Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-03-17:

     Instead of handshakes or high-fives, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams introduced the elbow bump at a news conference in Connecticut as a possible alternative to avoid the coronavirus. He showed reporters how it was done by demonstrating the elbow bump with Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Gov. Ned Lamont.

   • 2020 March 8, Marthe Fourcade, Thomas Mulier, quoting Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “Even Elbow-bumping is Too Intimate to Ward Off Coronavirus”, in Bloomberg News‎^[3], archived from the original on 2020-03-26:

     When greeting people, best to avoid elbow bumps because they put you within 1 meter of the other person. I like to put my hand on my heart when I greet people these days.

Related terms

• bump elbows
• rub elbows (“associate, mingle”) (not to be confused; idiom)

Translations

hit to the elbow; injury to the elbow caused by such a hit

• Finnish: isku kyynärpäähän
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

hit or jab made with the elbow

• Finnish: isku kyynärpäällä
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

touching of elbows between two people

• Catalan: xoc de colzes m
• Danish: albuehilsen c
• Dutch: ellebooggroet m
• Esperanto: kubuta saluto
• Finnish: kyynärpäätervehdys
• French: salut du coude m
• Greek: αγκωναψία (el) f (agkonapsía)
• Hebrew: כיף מרפק ?
• Indonesian: salam siku, tos siku
• Italian: saluto col gomito m
• Macedonian: по́здрав со лакт m (pózdrav so lakt), поздраву́вање со лакт n (pozdravúvanje so lakt)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: albuehilsen m

• Spanish: choque de codos m
• Swedish: armbågshälsningen c

Further reading

• elbow bump on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “elbow bump, n.” under “elbow, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2022.
• “elbow bump, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.