A BRIEF HISTORY OF "THE FINGER"

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF "THE FINGER"


In the current film, Titanic, the character Rose is shown giving 
the finger to her fiance's manservant (another character). Many 
people who have seen the film question whether "giving the finger" 
was really done around during the time of the Titanic disaster, or 
if it is a more recent gesture invented by some defiant 
seventh-grader.

And now you know the rest of the story... According to research,
here's the true story:

Giving the Finger - 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 be incapable of fighting in the future. This 
famous weapon 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! 
PLUCK YEW!"

Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this
symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say 
(like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker," which is who you had to 
go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), 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 are mistakenly thought to 
have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because 
of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture 
is known as "giving the bird."

And yew all thought yew knew everything!


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