Nuts and Bolts: curtseys and bows.

Long, long ago (it seems) we used to embrace each other. We would even pretend to kiss while we were doing it. Then, briefly, as people became to be viewed largely as reservoirs of potentially fatal infection, we thought it might be cool to bump elbows; but unless we have four-metre long arms then now even this is out of fashion.

Now we wave and smile. Some of us are even beginning to bow, a bit - not a stop, arrange the legs, and lower ourselves gracefully bow, but a courteous inclination of the head to acknowledge those who go out of their way to avoid us.

The curtsy, though, I've yet to see. Still, perhaps when the summer's properly here and ladies bring out their skirts then even the curtsy might get a revival.

So what's all this lowering oneself (literally and figuratively) all about?

It's basically a matter of gravity. The guy (or stag, for that matter) on the top of the slope has the advantage in a fight. If you lower yourself artificially, as in a bow or a curtsy, you're acknowledging the other person's power.


illustration by Fred Barnard

Long ago, people used to kneel to those in power but over the centuries the gesture has been abbreviated to the bow/curtsy (which was the same thing until a couple of hundred hundred years ago).

Nowadays the most we normally do in the West is to nod.

Still, the times aren't normal, so do feel free to bow or curtsy if you see me coming. 

I promise to curtsy back.

Thing To Do Today: bow/curtsy. The word bow comes from the Old English būgan. The Old Norse bjūgri means bent. The word curtsy is a shortened form of courtesy. In the 1200s the ancestor of this word was corteis, which means with courtly manners. The word court comes from the Latin cohors, cohort.