Fig sign

It is used playfully in Northwestern Europe and North Africa, countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, Libya, Tunisia and Czech Republic to pretend to take the nose off a child.

[1] In ancient Rome, the fig sign, or manu fica, was made by the pater familias to ward off the evil spirits of the dead as a part of the Lemuria ritual.

[6] In Italy, this sign, known as fica in mano ('fig-hand'), or far le fiche ('to make the fig'), was a common and very rude gesture in past centuries, similar to the finger, but has long since fallen out of use.

[1] Notably, a remnant of its usage is found in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Canto XXV), and it is commonly represented in medieval paintings of the Man of Sorrow.

The same hand shape is now frequently used, as a joke, with children, but represents the stealing of the nose and in this context bears no offensive or sexual meaning.