{{short description|Hand gesture}} {{Redirect|Low Five|the Sneaker Pimps song|Low Five (song)}} {{multiple image | align = right | direction = vertical | width = 200 | image1 = HFE_Too_Slow_2.JPG | alt1 = One person lowering their hand and the other raising theirs | image2 = HFE Down Low.JPG | alt2 = The second person moving their raised hand towards the other's lowered hand | footer = A low five palm slap gesture in motion }}
The '''low five''' is a hand gesture when two people slap palms together. One party extends an open palm, face upward at about waist level, the other party strikes the palm in a downward swing with their open palm. It is sometimes known as "slapping five", "give me five", or "giving/slapping skin". Archaic terms for it include "slip-slapping", "slapping the plank" and "soul shake".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcont0000gree |title=The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang |author=Jonathon Green |author-link=Jonathon Green |year=1985 |pages=256, 263 |publisher=Stein and Day |location=New York|isbn=9780812830514 }}</ref>
The gesture is an antecedent of the high five which appeared in the 1970s.<ref name=Crockett/>
==History== The low five had been known since at least the 1920s when it was used as a symbol of unity among African-Americans,<ref name=smitherman/> and had more of a status as an underground symbol of solidarity than as a widespread gesture.<ref name=Crockett>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517234619/https://priceonomics.com/the-inventor-of-the-high-five/ |archive-date=May 17, 2018 |url=https://priceonomics.com/the-inventor-of-the-high-five/ |title=The Inventor of the High Five |publisher=Priceonomics.com |access-date=2018-12-29 |author=Zachary Crockett}}</ref> In African-American English this was known as "giving skin" or "slapping skin".<ref name=smitherman>Geneva Smitherman. ''Word From The Mother: Language and African Americans'', Taylor & Francis, Apr 19, 2006. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mvj9iZ10XbIC&pg=PA113 Pg. 113].</ref>
In the 1927 film ''The Jazz Singer'', actor Al Jolson performs the low five, in celebration of the news of a Broadway audition. Written evidence can be found in Cab Calloway's 1938 ''Hepster's Dictionary''.<ref name=smitherman/> "Gimme Some Skin" was a term current in 1940s Hipster subculture and had crossed over to mainstream culture, as seen in the 1941 Abbott and Costello film ''In the Navy'' where the Andrews Sisters perform "Gimme Some Skin, My Friend" and choreograph giving low fives.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCQTPD747zEC&pg=PA144 |title=How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music |publisher=Oxford University Press |author=Elijah Wald |year=2011 |page=144 |isbn=978-0-19-975697-1 |access-date=June 9, 2015}}</ref> Soon after in the high-profile 1943 all-star Black film ''Stormy Weather'', Cab Calloway receives a double low five from The Nicholas Brothers as they begin their dance number to Calloway's song "Jumpin' Jive". Fred Astaire later told the Nicholas Brothers that the "Jumpin' Jive" dance sequence was "the greatest movie musical number he had ever seen".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-01-25-fayard-nicholas-obit_x.htm|title=USATODAY.com - Dancer Fayard Nicholas dies at 91|website=www.usatoday.com}}</ref>
==Variations== Variations that evolved in the black community include ''five on the black hand side'' (giving skin on the darker outer hand side) and ''five on the sly'' (a low five behind the back).<ref name=smitherman/>
== See also ==
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Gestures}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Low five}} Category:1920s introductions Category:5 (number) Category:American cultural conventions Category:Hand gestures Category:Hipsters (1940s subculture)