
Originally Posted by
b@d @pple
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 long bow 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."