{"id":9883,"date":"2022-10-06T19:15:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T19:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=9883"},"modified":"2022-10-06T19:15:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T19:15:09","slug":"arms-akimbo-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/arms-akimbo-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Arms Akimbo \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Describing someone\u2019s physical stance can be notoriously difficult \u2014 and if you haven\u2019t heard the phrase \u201c<strong>arms akimbo<\/strong>\u201d before, you\u2019re likely to find uses for it in everyday life very quickly! Learn more about this confident stance, and where the term came from, in this post.<\/p>\n<h2>Meaning<\/h2>\n<p>The phrase \u201c<strong>arms akimbo<\/strong>\u201d refers to a <u>physical stance in which a person has both hands on their hips and their elbows are pointed outward, so that the arms form a triangular shape<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p>When someone takes on an arms akimbo stance, the fingers may point to their back, or in front of them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Before you use the phrase arms akimbo, you should know that it can refer to:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The aforementioned stance alone.<\/li>\n<li>The aforementioned stance <em>in combination with<\/em> a confident, aggressive, impatient, or arrogant attitude.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAkimbo\u201d can also be used without preceding it with \u201carms\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Example Usage<\/h2>\n<p>Are you not sure how to incorporate the phrase \u201carms akimbo\u201d into a sentence? These examples are sure to help you out!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cMy little girl was standing there confidently, <strong>arms akimbo<\/strong>, telling me in no uncertain terms that we should have cupcakes for dinner.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cBefore you start this easy core exercise, it helps if you relax, standing with your hips shoulder-width apart and <strong>arms akimbo<\/strong>.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIf you want to come across as confident and proud, approach people with <strong>arms akimbo<\/strong> and a slight smile.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Origin<\/h2>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Arms akimbo<\/strong>\u201d is one of those curious terms with an even stranger history.<\/p>\n<p>Although it is not clear where the phrase first originated, we do know that the famous literary figure <strong>Geoffrey Chaucer<\/strong> used its \u201cpredecessor\u201d in the noted work <em>The Canterbury Tales<\/em>, which he wrote between the years of <strong>1387 and 1400<\/strong> in Middle English.<\/p>\n<p>The sentence \u201cthe hoost... set his hond in <strong>kenebowe<\/strong>\u201d appeared in this work, and it is precisely this fairly unrecognizable \u201ckenebowe\u201d that later morphed into the \u201cakimbo\u201d we know today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArms akimbo\u201d appears to have become the one standardized way to describe this stance \u2014 and the confidence or arrogance now associated with it \u2014 only in the <strong>twentieth century<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Before that, other variations that have been in used included \u201ckenbow\u201d, \u201cakembo\u201d, \u201cagembo\u201d, and even \u201ckemboll\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It is interesting to note that \u201cakimbo\u201d didn\u2019t appear in any other context besides \u201carms akimbo\u201d until fairly recently.<\/p>\n<p>UK comedians <em>The League of Gentlemen<\/em> have introduced the phrase \u201c<strong>legs akimbo<\/strong>\u201d, while there is also a 2019 movie called <em>Guns Akimbo<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In modern English, you can use the phrase \u201carms akimbo\u201d to describe the common stance, in which someone places their hands on their hips and juts their elbows outward, but the phrase has come to be associated with self-confidence and even aggression as well.<\/p>\n<h2>Phrases Similar to Arms Akimbo<\/h2>\n<p>There are no other phrases that are directly synonymous with \u201c arms akimbo\u201d. However, the so-called <strong>\u201csuperman\u201d stance<\/strong> is similar, in that the person places their hands on their hips, with their fingers pointing to the back.<\/p>\n<p>A superman stance also requires looking up, and is said to be a way to gain confidence.<\/p>\n<h2>Phrases Opposite to Arms Akimbo<\/h2>\n<p>There are no phrases with a directly opposite meaning. You can, however, say \u201c<strong>legs akimbo<\/strong>\u201d to mean knees pointing outward, while sitting down.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is the Correct Saying?<\/h2>\n<p>The correct saying is \u201c<strong>arms akimbo<\/strong>\u201d. It refers to a stance in which someone places their hands on their hips and points their elbows outward. Arms akimbo is typically associated with confidence.<\/p>\n<h2>Ways People May Say Arms Akimbo Incorrectly<\/h2>\n<p>As the long history of this phrase shows, \u201carms akimbo\u201d has undergone many transformations, morphing from \u201ckenebowe\u201d into \u201cakimbo\u201d over time.<\/p>\n<p>Once you know what the stance looks like, and that it is linked to a confident attitude, there really is no incorrect way to use it.<\/p>\n<h2>Acceptable Ways to Phrase Arms Akimbo<\/h2>\n<p>You can say that someone who has their hands on their hips and their elbows pointed out has their arms akimbo. You can call on someone to hold their arms akimbo if you are describing an exercise as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-2\">Describing someone\u2019s physical stance can be notoriously difficult \u2014 and if you haven\u2019t heard the phrase \u201carms akimbo\u201d before, you\u2019re likely to find uses for it in everyday life very quickly! Learn more about this confident stance, and where the term came from, in this post. Meaning The phrase \u201carms akimbo\u201d refers to a physical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9885,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9883\/revisions\/9885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}