Middle Finger Salute

ncff07

ncff07

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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 and family 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 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."



And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!
 
haha, that's interesting. I never knew that this was the case for index fingers, along with the phrase.

This just turned on one of my memory cells. I got something to share in light of fingers man. Did you know if you cut off your pinkies, you can't swim straight and properly? The Yakuza said so.
 
interesting and seems to make sense. good post.
 
ncff07 said:
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 and family 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 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."



And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!
Click to expand...

This is actually false. Check it out:

snopes.com: Pluck Yew
 
got me. never researched it. just had someone email it to me. :nana:
 
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