tried googling it but I only got the idiom and not an actual answer

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[–] 23 points 1 day ago* (8 children)

If you’re cute and fuzzy, it’s a paw.

If you’re big, tailless, and (mostly) hairless (read:ape), it’s a hand. Wikipedia refers to upper gorilla extremities as arms and hands:

A 2018 study investigating the hand posture of 77 mountain gorillas[…]

I have no actual idea but that’s my general guess.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    Though I wouldn't claim it to be an objective truth, my wife has previously declared me both cute and fuzzy.

    Though I may have (consensually) pawed at her on occasion, she's never claimed that I have paws.

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  • [–] -4 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

    No. You have paws on your hands. Look at your hand. Grip it with your paws: common expression.

    See the dip in the middle of your palm? See how there are little mountains around it? THOSE ARE YOUR PAWS.

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  • [–] 10 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

    you are the only person who has ever said this

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  • [–] 3 points 16 hours ago (1 child)

    I could believe that it might be a local or even vocation-specific phrase (see "southpaw" in boxing, for example), but the doubling down instead of questioning whether their take might be hyperspecific or plain wrong is hilarious.

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  • [–] 3 points 15 hours ago

    My charitable explaination is that he worked in the trades for a long time and is confusing an extremely local phrase ("grip with your paw") with actual definition of the word.

    One construction team I worked with a lot when I did trades called 2x4s "tooths" (two four -> twofer -> tooths) along with a bunch of other jargon. My team (AV/IT) called small screwdrivers "tweaks." When you work with the same people long enough, you come up with your own jokes and phrases....

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