The History Of The Middle Finger

[rednecks_r_us]

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."


IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY!


And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!

 

[aMaff]

my more intelligent friends

you must have posted this on the wrong forum.



And I've heard that story before. Kinda nifty, if you like flippin them birds from time to time. I prefer the double duce to the single...

 

[AlturredMP5]

in some countries, the peace sign is offensive... sorry, i cant leave a thread unposted

 

[gimpo2]

oh yeah a double shot is always better than a single

 

[Mutmatt]

i prefer the supa finger ala Dane Cook style

 

[aMaff]

SuFi FTW!

 

[Boston5761]

Haha...

 

[P5Alive]

A short history lesson.

First of all, despite the lack of motion pictures and television way back in the <NOBR>15th century,</NOBR> the details of medieval battles such as the one at Agincourt in 1415 did not go unrecorded. Battles were observed and chronicled by heralds who were present at the scene and recorded what they saw, judged who won, and fixed names for the battles. These heralds were not part of the participating armies, but were, as military expert John Keegan describes, members of an "international corporation of experts who regulated civilized warfare." Several heralds both French and English were present at the battle of Agincourt, and not one of them (or any later chronicles of Agincourt) mentioned anything about the French having cut off the fingers of captured English bowman.
Secondly, for a variety of reasons, it made no military sense whatsoever for the French to capture English archers, then mutilate them by cutting off their fingers. Medieval warriors did not take prisoners because they were observing a moral code that dictated that opponents who laid down their arms and ceased fighting must be treated humanely; they took prisoners because high-ranking captives were valuable property that could be ransomed for money. The ransoming of prisoners was the only way for medieval soldiers to make a quick fortune, and so they seized every available opportunity to capture opponents who could be exchanged for a handsome price.
Bowman were not valuable prisoners, though; they stood outside the chivalric system and were considered the social inferiors of men-at-arms. There was no monetary reward to be obtained by capturing them, nor was there any glory to be won by defeating them in battle. As Keegan wrote, "To meet a similarly equipped opponent was the occasion for which the armoured soldier trained perhaps every day of his life from the onset of manhood. To meet and beat him was a triumph, the highest form which self-expression could take in the medieval nobleman's way of life." Archers were not the "similarly equipped" opponents that armored soldiers triumphed in defeating; if the two clashed in combat, the armored soldier would either kill an archer outright or leave him to bleed to death rather than go to the wasteful effort of taking him prisoner.
Moreover, if archers could be ransomed, then cutting off their middle fingers would be a senseless move. Your opponent is not going to pay you (or pay you much) for the return of mutilated soldiers, so now what do you do with them? Take on the burden and expense of caring for them? Kill them outright and violate the medieval moral code of civilized warfare? <NOBR>(Henry V</NOBR> was heavily criticized for supposedly having ordered the execution of French prisoners at Agincourt.)
Even if killing prisoners of war did not violate the moral code of the times, what would be the purpose of cutting off fingers and then executing these same people? Why not simply kill them outright in the first place? Do you return these prisoners to your opponents in exchange for nothing, thereby providing them with trained soldiers who can fight against you another day? (Even if archers whose middle fingers had been amputated could no longer effectively use their bows, they were still capable of wielding mallets, battleaxes, swords, lances, daggers, maces, and other weapons, as archers typically did and as they indeed did at Agincourt when the opponents closed ranks with them and the fighting became hand-to-hand.)
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/So much for history. There's not much that makes linguistic sense here, either. The claim that the "difficult consonant cluster at the beginning" of the phase 'pluck yew' has "gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'f'" is specious. A labiodental fricative was no less "difficult" for Middle English speakers to pronounce than the aspirated bilabial stop/voiceless lateral combination of 'pl' that the fricative supposedly changed into, nor are there any other examples of such a shift occurring in English. As well, the etymology of the word '****' indicates that the word originated in a completely different time, place, and manner than the absurd version presented here. And on top of all that, the insulting gesture of extending one's middle finger (digitus impudicus in Latin) dates from Roman times (at least 2,000 years ago), so it obviously was not developed in conjunction with the creation of the English word '****.'"

 

[gimpo2]

pluck yew ruining the fun

 

[Mutmatt]

indeed

 

[Kooldino]

Sorry to pee in your Cheerios, but this is totally fabricated.

Check out why on snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

 

[rednecks_r_us]

Sorry to pee in your Cheerios, but this is totally fabricated.

Check out why on snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

Thats why its in the humor section.


LOL hahaha

 

[P5Alive]

Don't get me wrong. I thought it was funny too. I thought it was so funny I sent it to a couple of my friends that aren't on this forum. What I posted was a response from one of those friends...so pluck her for ruining it.

 

[aMaff]

She hot?

 

[P5Alive]

She's like 8 mos. prego. She used to be hot back in the day.