the middle finger...

[Ken Gargett]

a friend sent this through...

 

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.....

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 labiodentalfricative '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. Didn't yew!!

[Fuzz]

Might be confusing the 2 finger insult there. The French were rumoured to have cut off both the index and middle finger of captured archers. 

The one finger insult dates back to ancient Greece. 

[La_Tigre]

“I fart in your general direction!”

[Islandboy]

This story sounds suspect...you’re just plucking with us, right? 

[Li Bai]

1 hour ago, Fuzz said:

Might be confusing the 2 finger insult there. The French were rumoured to have cut off both the index and middle finger of captured archers. 

The one finger insult dates back to ancient Greece. 

That's what we're told here, although I thought the middle finger dated back to the Romans 🤔

[SirVantes]

That's not the end of the story.  After Agincourt, the French also tried to adopt the longbow, but they never achieved the same expertise.  As a result, when it comes to plucking the bowstring with the requisite skill, the English soldiers were the "cans", while the French were the "can'ts".

To this day, the English refer to the French as "plucking can'ts".