Englishcross one's fingers
Meaning: To hope for luck.
Example: “I've sent in the application; now I'm crossing my fingers.”
Origin: Traces to pre-Christian European traditions of hand gestures believed to channel supernatural protection, with the crossing point of two fingers treated as a small magical anchor — a place where a good wish could be pinned in place until it came true. The gesture originally took two people: a well-wisher hooked their index finger over the person making the wish, forming the cross together rather than alone. Early Christians later adopted the same crossed shape as a plea for the protection of the Holy Cross, and it also reportedly served as a discreet way for Christians to identify one another in hostile company. Over time the gesture simplified into something a single person could do unassisted, crossing their own index and middle fingers, and eventually the phrase "keep your fingers crossed" outlasted the literal gesture altogether, invoked with no fingers actually crossed at all.
More English idioms
- someone's days are numbered There is only a short time before something ends.
- dead to the world Fast asleep.
- deal someone in To include someone in something, especially a card game.
- diamond in the rough An unpolished or unsophisticated person that has potential.
- divide the spoils To give portions of the goods captured during a war to the winners of the war.
- do or die To make a final, all-out effort, whatever the risk.
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Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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