willstaff Loc: Daytona Beach, Fl

HISTORY OF THE FAMOUS 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.

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 they 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.'

Isn't history more fun when you know something about it? And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing.

nafplyr Loc: Chicago

I have also heard tho I cannot verify it that some soldiers that were exchanged back to the English who had suffered the loss of their middle finger would raise the finger of their left hand for the same reason,because they were taught to shoot with both hands.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Well I never knew about the "pluck you"....pluck me!!

Black Bart Loc: Indiana

Well I sure learned something today.
For about 10 years I drove a school bus and when the kids gave me the one finger salute I thought they were telling me I was #1 driver.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

LOL.

magicray Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

The story that I heard was that it all started when a father was embarrassed to learn his son's desire to become a proctologist. The rest is history.

Ambrose Loc: North America

Sorry - the story is false.
http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.asp

F**k originates from German's "fliechen" which mean "to strike".

Its first known use as a verb meaning to have sexual intercourse is in "Flen flyys," written around 1475 and written at "fukkit".

The earliest appearance of current spelling is 1535 -- "Bischops ... may f**k thair fill and be vnmaryit".

Other variants ensued. The rest is history.

Kento Loc: East End of Long Island

Fornicate under the crown of the king

Floyd Loc: Misplaced Texan in Florence, Alabama

The best response to the "middle finger" salute,in MHO, happened when a panning camera caught a kid waving that salute. Commentator, Don Meredith's immediate response was, "He sure is proud of his IQ!"

mowrider Loc: Detroit, Mi. / Round rock, Texas

The "f" word is an acronym for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" when police were giving tickets to "johns"

bygeorge Loc: Fl.<N.J.<Fl.

plucking A.That's good to know.

Spindrift62 Loc: Dorset, England. U.K.

Sorry, but apart from the English defeating the French at Agincourt, this is all rubbish. The French were alleged to cut off the index and second fingers not just the second. The sign allegedly given by the English was the 'V' sign, although this has also been questioned recently. What has not been challenged is that all English arrows were fletched with white goose feathers, a much more common bird than the pheasant in the English country side and having a much heavier and tougher feather construction. Also in the pursuit of the truth the Long Bow was a Welsh invention, I believe somewhere around the 5th Century. Not all the yew tree was used as the power of the bow relied on the positioning of two directional grains of the wood being adjacent in the shaft, one being more flexible than the other so that the stiffer grain pulled the softer grain back into a straight line after it had been released from tension. Personally I always thought that 'the finger' was an American gesture as it was unknown in England during my youth (1950's). For a brilliant read on the long bow try the novels of Bernard Cornwell such as 'Azincourt' and the trilogy called 'The Archers Tale'. Brilliant novels that include a wealth of historical information especially regarding the Long Bow.

Kento Loc: East End of Long Island

Probably American, you Brits use reverse V (Palm in) the Brazilians an O (like ok sign)' Japanese a fist with thumb sticking out between first and second finger and we all know what Italians do.