A thumbs up meant that the victor should spare the life of his rival; a thumbs down and the loser would be killed. Today, the same symbols have become the norm for rating arts and entertainment ...

To that end, news outlets are reporting that Gen Z finds the thumbs-up emoji ... It’s going to be a bang-up day. Confused? What are we to do when “universal” symbols mean something different ...

As for the courts, last August a judge in New York ruled that under the right circumstances, a thumbs-up emoji can be sufficient ... us Linguistics 101, that symbols possessing no inherent meaning ...