American Sign Language:  "anxious" "restless" "squirm sitting"

Also see: NERVOUS

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ANXIOUS / restless / squirming in chair:
The sign "SIT" can be modified to show someone squirming in their chair.  This can be used to mean "anxiety" and similar concepts. This sign doesn't exactly mean nervous, it means "restless" or perhaps "ants in the pants."

Think of the dominant hand as representing the legs of a person. If you were to show that person shifting uneasily from side to side in a "chair" it would mean "anxious."  Do this sign by holding your hands like you do for the sign "SIT," then twist your dominant hand to the right and then to the left so that your index and middle finger alternate being lifted off of the left "H" (palm down) hand a couple of times.

Example sentence:
YOU FEEL ANXIOUS, WHEN? (When do you feel anxious?)

 

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Notes:

The sign "anxious" could modified to function as a classifier (CL:V-bent) representing "legs." The normal sign "anxious" is a lexicalized classifier.  But if you modify and use the movement of the sign to show how the individual is sitting (perhaps he or she got spanked recently and is sitting "gingerly?") the sign would then be considered a regular classifier.

 

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Also see: NERVOUS

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