thumb|A high five between two [[U.S. Navy sailors]]
thumb|right|NASA's [[Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity rover team celebrate with high fives after the landing on Mars, August 2012. Variations seen include: the two-handed high-five; the top-shake swagger; the high-five gauntlet; the air-five; the high-five left hanging.]]
The high five is a hand gesture whereby two people simultaneously raise one hand and slap the flat of their palm against the other. but the first and two most documented candidates are Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team on October 2, 1977, and Wiley Brown and Derek Smith of the Louisville Cardinals men's college basketball team during the 1978–1979 season.
Origin
thumb|right|upright|The gesture might have originated in American professional sports. Photo of [[Drew Storen (right) and Wilson Ramos of the Washington Nationals in 2011.]]
The use of the phrase as a noun has been part of the Oxford English Dictionary since 1980 and as a verb since 1981. The phrase is related to the slang "give me five" which is a request for some form of handshake – variations include "slap me five", "slip me five", "give me (some) skin" – with "five" referring to the number of digits on a hand. The "high five" originated from the "low five", which has been a part of African-American culture since the 1920s. As journalist Jon Mooallem tells the story: