walk like an Egyptian
noun · first attested 1962
The pose copies a drawing convention: Egyptian artists showed head and legs in profile but the shoulders square to the viewer.
To walk with the arms bent at right angles, one raised and one lowered, in imitation of figures in ancient Egyptian art.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1962
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Egypt
- In English
walk like an Egyptian
The phrase is older than the song that made it famous. It appears in the 1962 film of To Kill a Mockingbird, where Jem explains that he is walking like an Egyptian because his class has been studying them, and it turns up in American newspapers by 1978. Liam Sternberg wrote the 1986 Bangles hit after watching passengers on a rough Channel ferry stick their arms out for balance.