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 diff icult 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!
