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> The history of the middle finger
>
>
> 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 a ct 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 w ith 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 every plucking thing.
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2007 Sep 7 at 03:44 PDT
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