History of the middle finger

[Laseirna]

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."

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!

[Cymry]

Pluck Yew -- great name for an archer toon. Too bad all my slots on Solclaim are taken!!

[Ncatyl]

Much as I loved that when I first saw it...and still do...

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

Just so nobody else embarasses themselves, like I did. But I really do enjoy the spoof as a campfire story! As I also enjoy the one involving the distance between railroad tracks:

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.htm

[Laseirna]

I kind of figured that it wasn't true but thought it cute anyway

[Oof]

Me too! And Ncatyl, I liked the story about the railroad tracks too btw.