History Of The Middle Finger

[peter991]

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 more 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 victory 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 drawing 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 with 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.

[Crossy]

Hmmm, interesting. I was always taught that the above was the origin of the 'two fingered salute' (showing both bow fingers) rather than the single finger which I've always associated with Americans.

The single finger certainly wasn't widely used in the UK, see the original Mr Bean film, he'd obviously not seen it before either, leading to interesting consequences with a hairy biker

[peter991]

Not sure how accurate my post was - it's something my mother sent me! Perhaps other readers with too much time on their hands could research it.

Peter

Reason for edit: Too many thumbs, not enough fingers.

Edited July 26, 2007 by peter991

[Humphrey Bear]

Hmmm, interesting. I was always taught that the above was the origin of the 'two fingered salute' (showing both bow fingers) rather than the single finger which I've always associated with Americans.

Exactly. Precisely..

Edited July 26, 2007 by Humphrey Bear