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 share it with you in the hope that you, 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.
froggywoogie
•14 years ago
Holly pluck! I didn’t know this (obviously very important) history fact 🙂
CATRYNA WHITE
•5 years ago
Learning history can be fun. LOL
fibi
•14 years ago
How funny.. You are a veritable fountain of knowledge..
@mmonyte
•14 years ago
Actually a true englishman prefers the two fingered V sign of “Bowfinger” insult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#Origins
vishesh unni raghunathan
•14 years ago
lol 😛
The history of the middle finger | Contemplative Haven
•14 years ago
[…] The history of the middle finger la ink tattoo gallery Posted in Uncategorized RSS 2.0 | Trackback | […]
Sue
•14 years ago
That is just hilarious!!!
One of the Best Things I saw Today. « Caila Lipovsky
•14 years ago
[…] Cars would honk, and she’d quit walking and give em the finger. I’m glad to have finally discovered the origin of the gesture. […]
Deeps
•14 years ago
Hahahah LOL….!!! Awweesumm!!!
Deborah
•14 years ago
hA thats funny, yet very true, but yet since it was from a long time ago i wish we could use it everywhere!! without punishment!!