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Info Overload.......funny ?
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.
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