FireLink

The History of the Middle Finger

Well, now......here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to! my mor e intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified.  Isn't history more fun when you know something about it?  

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating vict ory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of d rawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew!  Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals fricative F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!  It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used wi th the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."

IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY!

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing.

Hahaha it all makes sense now

I have no idea if it is true or total BS. Either way, its a good story. Stuff like that makes going to class a little easier. Of course, if it is crap, it'll make you fail that class too.

Nice

firefish, John Lennon' s character in "Yellow Submarine" did that all over the place.  First and 4th finger raised is the "horned hand," which was an ancient Roman sign for "cuckold," or a guy whose wife was gettin' it from somebody else.  Earlier, it just meant the horned god, he who protects forests and wildlife, or just creative energy in general.