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Posted

Hi, with Rose Ayling-Ellis competing in Strictly Come Dancing this year, and lots of the cast making an effort to learn a few signs here and there, I found myself wondering:

 

What's the best way to sign Craig Revel Horwood's favourite compliment, "fabulous"?

 

It's a subtle word: it means "very good" of course, but it also has connotations, from its long history of being used amongst gay men, of being sparkly and lovely, and the word itself sounds a bit camp when used.  I'm guessing that there's probably not a direct equivalent, unless any gay signers know of something suitable?

 

Plus, when Craig says the word, he delivers it as three very distinct syllables with gaps between, for emphasis: fab... u... lous.

 

Will the best option just be to take a sign that means "great", maybe do it in a slightly camp way, and pause a few times during it, to get the same effect?

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

For what it's worth, he recently described Rose's dance as "a... may... zing" and used the "dominant hand held with palm towards stomach, moving downwards twice" sign for "amazing", but he did it with both hands and with three movements instead of two, to match the syllables of the spoken word.  On top of that, while the "amazing" sign has the fingers together, his wrists were limp and his fingers were splayed in a way that he would have criticised in a dancer, so overall I've no idea what a speaker of BSL would make of his effort... but Rose seemed to appreciate the gesture, at least!

Craig tries a bit of BSL

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
18 hours ago, remark.uk said:

Hi

if you can have a look https://www.instagram.com/reel/CQgFBCGHN4f/

The sign is the same for fabulous.

 

Many thanks, in fact last week he did indeed sign "fabulous" using that sign, again repeating the last part twice to match the emphasis on the spoken syllables.  He's obviously done his homework!

I love the camp wrist in the gesture, reminds me of the old, un-PC sign for "gay"!

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