The article is devoted to the study of the internal form, semantics, pragmatics and actual use of gestures in phraseology in the conditions of linguocultural contacts. The internal form of a phraseological unit may contain traces of deep layers of universal and national culture, thus acquiring cultural connotation, which is understood as the interpretation of the denotative or figuratively motivated (quasi-denotative) aspects of the meaning of a phraseological unit in the categories of culture. In the focus of attention are the stable phraseological units with the component “fig” in Ukrainian and Russian phraseology. The history of the gesture, its symbolism, its role in the composition of phraseological units, semantics and specificity of its use are studied on the material of the compared linguocultures. The name of the unique transcultural magic gesture consisting of a single word-sign, which has so firmly taken root in many cultures of the world, turned out to be the semantic core and the semantic centre of many phraseological phrases of closely related languages with figurative and situational motivation. The study was carried out on the practical material of dictionary articles and mass media.