knittinkitten
Lady Lake, FL
77, joined Jan. 2007
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Received in an Email....KK
The History of the Middle Finger - Author Unknown
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.'
IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY!
And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing
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silkpanties53
Baytown, TX
58, joined Dec. 2007
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 learn somthing new every day 
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