The History of the Middle Finger

[Filonian]

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 suitably edificated.



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.


Graham

[Garry Russell]

Well.... my brain cell has been well and truly plucked

Garry

[Nigel H-J]

Well, bless my middle finger, that is something unbeknown to me til now.

Nigel.

[Tomliner]

I believe that the well known two finger 'salute' originated as a gesture of provocation by English archers to the French to show that they were capable of firing their bows.Anyone would think they didn't like each other!EricT

[Garry Russell]

I've heard that one too Eric

Garry

[Tako_Kichi]

I feel that the two fingered 'salute' is more likely to be the one closer to the truth regarding Agincourt. An archer uses the first two fingers to draw the bow string after all and without them he would be unable to use his weapon.

IIRC the one fingered 'salute' is a North American thing and is a much more recent development in terms of global history.

[DaveB]

I'd like to believe this but being a cynic.. I'm more inclined to go for 'Many buffalo pass this way'. Nice.. but blx all the same

ATB

DaveB

[steelsporran]

1 finger means "sit on this"
2 fingers have a greater circumference so more has to be accommodated at one sitting.
Ergo: they're bigger a***holes

[DelP]

Nice.. but blx all the same

Nicely put Dave

An archer uses three fingers to draw a bow....trust me, I know There is no evidence that Welsh or English archers, (I doubt the French would have made the distinction) were ever mutilated when captured...before or after Azincourt. The use of hand gestures goes back to the time when folks were banging rocks together, the two-fingered salute was in use long before Henry V told his stout yeoman that they risked losing their digits if they didn't stand firm...as if they needed any such encouragement .......and the Romans made good use of the single finger to inform their opponents that they were a bunch of p***ks.

As with any tale written long after the event and embellished as time goes on it's nice to think that we hold these gestures as a sign of defiance....unfortunately we've borrowed them from someone else and use them as our own

Rant over

Derek

[Filonian]

Lighten up guys - JOKE - not meant to be historically correct.

Graham