History: Manicules, Fists & Indexes

"The problem is that everyone knows what the symbol is and does when they see it, but almost nobody knows what to call it." - William H Sherman

I don't know about you, but I've always found the hand pointing left/right a mystery. I've seen it around in places here and there and it seemed like an iconic classic feature but for a while it didn't seem to have a name or face. All I knew was that I really liked it. It had character. It is only until today however, that I have discovered its identity and I am finally able to pinpoint a brief story behind its birth.

With the help of Typophile I discovered that it goes by the name 'Manicule', invented by William H. Sherman who also unravels the symbol's history here. Its origins are embedded within the history of typography, a symbol popular pre-20th century, used by typesetters (usually in the margins of manuscripts and printed books) to point out significant parts of texts and paragraphs. It is curious and fascinating because for a simple function its design was rather intricate. But these hands, didn't really have an official standard name in the first place despite it being widely used during the time, they have been called and known as 'fist', 'mutton-fist', 'index' and even just 'hand' ... but since they were rather generic and as Sherman puts it "sketchy description", he decided to invent one and thus 'Manicule', the name we know today, came to be.