History of Middle Finger

Anon-15281db623 · Jan 11, 2005

Just got this in the inbox today.

Giving the
finger 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 weapon
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! "PLUCK YEW!" Since 'pluck
yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at
the beginning has gradually hanged to a labiodental 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 everything!
Click to expand...

cooked

scorcer · Jan 11, 2005

interesting, very interesting
gonna have to google that one

Solange · Jan 11, 2005

Cool! I'll think of that next time I give someone the...

Nah, I don't do stuff like that, I'm a good girl! http://members.chello.se/solange/smileys/angel.gif

....... NOT http://members.chello.se/solange/smileys/gun.gif

Kodo · Jan 11, 2005

sorry
http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

bigbazza · Jan 11, 2005

ROFLMAO, even it has been debunked by your link. Bazza

===

Kodo said:

sorry
http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm
Click to expand...

Maxwell · Jan 11, 2005

This is nonsense, since in England and a large amount of Europe use a two-fingered salute - the reverse of the V-victory sign. This was supposedly from the same source of Agincourt but other sources state that it is a variant of the Arab nose jerk gesture.

Did you know the the OK gesture is offensive in Brazil...

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History of Middle Finger

Anon-15281db623 Anonymized

scorcer ajMro keGe

Solange Sergeant Major

Kodo SNATCHSQUATCH

bigbazza R.I.P. 14/12/2011 - Good Onya Geek

Maxwell Folgers