The History of the Middle Finger

[Admin]

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 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."

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!

[defln67]

lol thats pretty random, but thats pretty cool, i learned some thing today