The Study of Gesture: Some Remarks on its History

Abstract

The modern word ‘gesture’ is derived from a Latin root gerere which means ‘to bear or carry, to take on oneself, to take charge of, to perform or to accomplish.’ It derives more immediately from a Mediaeval Latin word ‘gestura’ which means ‘way of carrying’ or ‘mode of action’ (Partridge, 1959) and in its earliest uses in English it referred to the manner of carrying the body, bodily bearing or deportment. Somewhat later it came to be used in Rhetorical treatises to refer to the way in which the body was to be employed in the making of speeches and this usage included, of course, the specific actions of the limbs and face that, nowadays, we usually have in mind when the term ‘gesture’ is used. It is probably through a specialization of this usage that the modern meaning derived.