The History of the Middle Finger

[BushBuster]

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 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.

[AndyLala]

hmmm, I always thought it was the index and middle finger... hence Churchill's appropriate salute...

Its not particularly easy to pull one of those longbows with one finger...

[Gizmo]

hmmm, I always thought it was the index and middle finger... hence Churchill's appropriate salute...

Its not particularly easy to pull one of those longbows with one finger...

The V salute from Churchill represented Victory, and not as it is used today.

[oneidadan]

yar it's the index and middle finger that were removed. On some rare archers' skeletons, the ones with those two fingers missing, the little finger and the ring finger had become more robust enabling them to draw a warbow, although how the index and middle fingers were lost are not clear.
The two fingered salute may have been used at Agincourt, but it's use was first written about by a monk describing an English siege of a French castle. The monk died well before the battle of Agincourt. Also, Henry V used it to stir up his soldiers before battle even though the 'finger removal operation' was not widely practised by the French.

[yoshie]

It's a nice story about Agincourt,but it's a myth

[Bibbs]

Great story .. but false.

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.asp

[joedude]

Here's another funny fake linguistic history lesson:

Ever wonder where the word "shit" comes from. Well here it is:

Certain types of manure used to be transported (as everything was back then) by ship. In dry form it weighs a lot less, but once water (at sea) hit it. It not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by-product is methane gas.

As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen; methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern. BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was discovered what was happening.

After that, the bundles of manure where always stamped with the term "S.H.I.T" on them which meant to the sailors to "Ship High In Transit." In other words, high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Bet you didn't know that one.

Here I always thought it was a golf term.