History of Middle Finger

[Chiron]

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 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!" Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to
say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually
hanged to a labiodental 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!