Dap greetings are a series of gestures exchanged between individuals to indicate agreement, celebration, or friendship. They originated in the black community and have spread to other racial groups, with many subcultures developing their own specific dap greetings. The gestures are performed in a specific order and can indicate solidarity, belonging, and social status. The meaning of “dap” is unclear, but it may stand for “dignity and pride.”
A dap greeting is a series of concerted gestures exchanged between two individuals. While a dap greeting can be exchanged after meeting someone, it can also be used to indicate agreement, celebration, or friendship at any time. A dap greeting can include hand slapping, fist banging in any direction, snapping, finger wagging, and other forms of contact, and can last anywhere from a few seconds to over a minute. Dap greetings originated in the black community and have since spread to other racial groups, with many subcultures and friend groups developing their own very specific dap greetings.
Gesture series
At its most basic, a dap greeting is simply a ritualized handshake, but it usually includes a number of other gestures, with the gestures performed in a specific, choreographed order. Many people learn dap greetings when they are very young, by observing and interacting with other people in their communities. Often, such greetings are exchanged almost reflexively, just like business people shake hands when they meet.
origins
This type of greeting is typically non-verbal and is exchanged as a gesture of affection and solidarity. Dap greetings are believed to have originated in Africa where people of different tribes might exchange such greetings when meeting to indicate peaceful and friendly intentions. Black people who have migrated to other parts of the world, including those forcibly transported as slaves, have developed their own dap greetings.
Meaning of “dap”
Some people believe that “dap” stands for “dignity and pride,” reflecting the black power movement’s adoption of the dap greeting. Others suggest that “dignity and pride” is simply what is sometimes called a “backronym” – an acronym made up after a word already existed. “Dap” could also be an abbreviation of another word or an onomatopoeia, a word that imitates the noise made by this type of greeting; some dap greetings create a sound very similar to “dap,” which is produced by pulling the participants’ lightly cupped hands against each other.
Sociological intrigue
Among groups of friends or people in the same community, it is common for a distinctive dap greeting to evolve and for such greetings to be exchanged on a regular basis. From the point of view of sociologists and anthropologists, the use of such greetings is very intriguing. They can indicate solidarity, belonging to a specific group, and social status, among other things.
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