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!
2007-12-25 10:01:55 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Jokes & Riddles
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.
2007-12-25 10:02:14 · update #1
iu already knew that one i learnt it in history in school lmao! its soo funny star4u!
2007-12-25 21:38:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Interesting story, I would love to know where you got that info. I'm not saying it's wrong but I researched this some years ago and the story is a little different in as much as the French would cut the first two fingers off of the right hand, thus making it impossible to pull a bow and the English used the two finger salute to mock the French and let them know that they could still pull a bow.
2007-12-25 18:19:53 · answer #2 · answered by Chris P 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Lol Honey I pluck yew,me thinks some people need some education.Remember Pink Floyds Another P**k in the wall,here have a star.!!
I loved it.xxxxxx
2007-12-25 20:21:20 · answer #3 · answered by Wonderstar 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have heard about that before except the "pluck yew" part was left out of my first history lesson on this(wasn't in history class just to let you know. My dad told me.)
2007-12-25 18:12:46 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
For some reason, I find that hard to believe.
Holding up the middle finger seems like flashing a phallus symbol. It's calling someone else inferior and probably originated quite a while back in Greece.
2007-12-25 18:09:48 · answer #5 · answered by Chica 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Funny! 100!
2007-12-25 18:11:27 · answer #6 · answered by cats 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Brilliant, star.
2007-12-26 05:46:22 · answer #7 · answered by xyz 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ahh you been raiding my side of the box lol
good one...star
2007-12-25 23:55:46 · answer #8 · answered by ♥Scottish♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥Fairy♥ 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
that sucked. hope you're not planning on becoming a comedian. lol (just thought i would write something different.)
nahhh...jk. that was a cool joke.
P.S.
Give me best answer! (ok...please. :) )...i'll give you a star...
2007-12-26 23:01:16 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wow that's actually pretty good well done you,
I think that I might have seen that one before somewhere.
Thank you :)
2007-12-25 18:11:34 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋