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WORK: The American Sign Language (ASL) sign for: work / labor / employment (and related concepts)
The sign for "work" is made by shaping both hands into "fist shapes" (the letter "s.") With your palms facing downward, use your dominant fist to tap the wrist or the side of your non-dominant fist a few times.
WORK:
Memory Aid: Think of working with a hammer.
While the sign "WORK" can (in context) be used to mean "job" -- there is a more common way of signing "job."
See: JOB
The word "work" has meanings other than just "perform labor." If you use work in sentences such as: "That worked!" or "That works!" or "It didn't work!" -- what you really mean is "success," "succeed," or "satisfies a need."
If you mean work as in "succeed" then use the sign: SUCCESS
If you mean work as in "that works" -- as in that is satisfactory then use the sign for SATISFY
If you mean work as in "that didn't work" you could use the sign FAIL
Notes:
You may see people doing variations of the sign for work.
not recommended version)
For example you might see this variation.
I don't recommend this variation.
WORK (
Question:
Why don't you recommend that version?
Answer:
Because that version of the sign for work somewhat resembles a some of the characteristics of a sign for a three letter word that starts with "S" and ends with "X."
To be clear, the above version of "work" is "not" a dirty or intimate sign regardless of what various juvenile individuals will try to tell you.
Just because two signs share the same basic location, orientation, and handshape doesn't mean that there are not additional significant differences in production (the way you sign it).
People who have not had enough real world experience signing and interacting with the Deaf community (or who learn sign language out of books or from not-so-good internet sources) tend to miss such small differences between signs and then spread garbage information.
Don't be such a person.
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