新冠肺炎，Namaste (雙手合十) & Elbow Bump (碰肘) 蘇正隆－速意翻譯社的部落格

新冠肺炎

Namaste (雙手合十) & Elbow Bump (碰肘) 蘇正隆

　　新冠肺炎流行逐漸改變現代社會的某些社交禮儀，歐美許多名人政要開始以「雙手合十/合掌禮」(namaste/ˈnʌməsteɪ/) 或「碰肘/擊肘」(elbow bump) 替代握手。請看以下媒體標題及報導：

No handshakes, only Namaste: President Trump, Prince Charles adopts Indian style

　　美國總統川普與印度裔的愛爾蘭總理瓦惹德可 (Leo Varadkar) 見面，彼此以「雙手合十/合掌禮」致意。(上圖)
US President Donald Trump and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar greeted each other with namaste (雙手合十/合掌禮) at the White House on Thursday, saying that it is necessary for the current time of pandemic coronavirus. (Global Village Space)

　　英國王儲查爾斯以「雙手合十」代替握手。(圖 2)
Prince Charles started trending after he was spotted greeting people with a namaste at the London Palladium (倫敦帕拉丁劇院) on March 11. The video of Prince of Wales bringing out his hand for a shake and then suddenly switching to namaste has gone viral. With the number of coronavirus positive people reaching an alarming number of 460 in the UK, people, including the Royal Family are taking these measures. (India Today)

　　《商業內幕》報導：美國總統川普13日下午在白宮舉行新冠肺炎記者會，他想和居家照護公司LHC集團執行副總 Bruce Greenstein 握手，葛林斯坦婉拒，示意改用擊肘。(圖 3)
President Donald Trump attempted to shake hands with a home health care company executive during a Friday press conference, but the man turned the president down and offered him an elbow bump instead. (Business Insider)

　　「雙手合十/合掌禮」源自印度，也流行於泰、緬等國家。「碰肘/擊肘」則是2006禽流感、2009 猪流感後逐漸流行。以下節自 Wikipedia：
Namaste, sometimes spoken as Namaskar and Namaskaram, is a customary Hindu greeting. In the contemporary era, it is found on the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and among the Indian diaspora worldwide. The gesture is widely used in the parts of Southeast Asia where Indian religions are strong.

The elbow bump is an informal greeting where two people touch elbows. Interest in this greeting was renewed during the avian flu (禽流感) scare of 2006 and the 2009 swine flu (猪流感) outbreak, and the Ebola (伊波拉) outbreak of 2014, and 2019 COVID19 flu (新冠肺炎) when health officials supported its use to reduce the spread of germs. ((Jerome Su, March 17, 2020)