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gesticulate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 2 February 2007

Etymology

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From Latin gesticulatus, past participle of gesticulari (“to gesticulate”), from gesticulus (“a mimic gesture”), diminutive of gestus (“gesture”), from gerere, gestum (“to bear, carry, perform”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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gesticulate (third-person singular simple present gesticulates, present participle gesticulating, simple past and past participle gesticulated)

  1. (intransitive) To make gestures or motions, as in speaking.
    • 1876 January, “A Week among the Maoris of Lake Taupo”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume XXXIII, number 193, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place, →OCLC, page 65:
      A "Haka" is the native dance, answering to the corroboree 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 and gesticulated with the most hideous and revolting gestures, grimaces, and yells.
    • 1954, Kingsley Amis, chapter 12, in Lucky Jim:
      ... groups of dancers were wheeling, plunging, and gesticulating while the ogre, more aphasic than before, mumbled at full strength ...
    • 2005 January 30, Ariel Love, “Half empty”, in The 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 he gesticulates wildly, as though he were a fop in the court of Louis XIV.
  2. (transitive) To say or express through gestures.
    • 2004 December 6, Irish Times:
      […] the TV programme Friends is influencing not only the way Irish people speak but also how they gesticulate. Now almost every utterance is accompanied by arms outstretched and palms turned upwards."
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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Spanish

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Verb

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gesticulate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of gesticular combined with te
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