The history of the middle finger

[vairman]

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, anticipati ng 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 t he 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!

[TomS]

IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE
TO THE FRENCH TODAY!

I found that particular salute gets attention, especially one day a few years ago when I used it to greet the police

[Rob]

Tom--

He probably thought you were one of those hippie-type Californians coming up to hug their trees. Now there's a law clear-cut areas must be replanted, but it hasn't always existed.

[kirtsjc]

See, we can still pluck yew!

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."

That story is so far-fetched it can only be true!

Thank you for sharing it - I needed a laugh today!

[dmb90260]

And another urban legend shows up.

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

[kirtsjc]

And another urban legend shows up.

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

Spoilsport!!!!

I'm still laughing anyway, you person whose father smelt of elderberries and whose mother wore combat sandals!

(Whoo Hoo, it's back to the padded room for me!)

[angib]

And just to spoil the sport some more........

In addition to this apparently not being historically true, this presentation is obviously an American invention - the middle-finger 'salute' does not exist in Britain, except as a recent import via Hollywood's fine products. The British offensive gesture is to raise both the first two fingers - the 'V-sign' - like the 'peace, man' V-sign but with knuckles outward instead of palm outward.

Similarly, the 'plucking the yew' bit is clearly a US addition too - the British expletive was never 'pluck yew', but 'pluck off'.

If anyone wants to perfect their technique in advance of a visit here, the British V-sign is correctly delivered with a rising hand (say 'Up yours, Limey!' to yourself as you practice it...), whereas I've always seen the middle-finger delivered with a hand held up, static.

While searching for a decent image of a correct British V-sign, I came across this curious one of Winston Chiurchill getting his Victory sign the wrong way round:



Of course, the British V-sign has the huge advantage of fitting this urban legend even better, since it uses both of the fingers required to pull a bow.

Andrew

[len19070]

Heres another one I like, that by the way has been deemed a myth. But I like the story.

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters
carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was
necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them
from rolling about the deck?
The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one
ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen.
Thus, a supply of thirty cannon balls could be stacked in a small area
right next to the cannon.
There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from
sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate
called a "Monkey" with sixteen round indentations. But, if this plate
was made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution
to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys."
Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much
faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped
too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon
balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally,
"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!"
(And all this time, you thought that was a dirty expression, didn't you?)

Happy Trails

Len

[Steve_Cox]

Len,
This ledgend was also the basis for the expression "Has more balls than a brass monkey". Here's another tack on the story:

The first recorded use of the term "brass monkey" appears to dates to 1857 when it was used in an apparently vulgar context by C.A. Abbey in his book Before the Mast, where on page 108 it says "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey." [Source: Lighter, J.E. ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. (New York: Random House, 1994): 262.]

It has often been claimed that the "brass monkey" was a holder or storage rack in which cannon balls (or shot) were stacked on a ship. Supposedly when the "monkey" with its stack of cannon ball became cold, the contraction of iron cannon balls led to the balls falling through or off of the "monkey." This explanation appears to be a legend of the sea without historical justification. In actuality, ready service shot was kept on the gun or spar decks in shot racks (also known as shot garlands in the Royal Navy) which consisted of longitudinal wooden planks with holes bored into them, into which round shot (cannon balls) were inserted for ready use by the gun crew. These shot racks or garlands are discussed in: Longridge, C. Nepean. The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships. (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1981): 64. A top view of shot garlands on the upper deck of a ship-of-the-line is depicted in The Visual Dictionary of Ships and Sailing. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1991): 17.

But who's to say it's not true. There is an absence in history of written accounts of many vessels except the ships log where such things might not have been mentioned. The above "Before the Mast" was one of the few books written about life at sea from a deck hands perspective, simply because no one was literate enough to write a book.

Guess this was way too much about this subject. Sorry.
Steve

[len19070]

OK..OK Heres another one I've heard. Maybe our Australian friends can straighten me out on.

Years ago when English explorers "Discovered" Australia. A fact finding group went a shore to go discover'n.

They saw a native, and promptly captured him. Now the English couldn't speak the natives tongue any more than he could theirs.

Every time they would find a new animal, plant or anything else. They would grab the native and ask "Whats that?", the native would respond and that's what it was called.

One animal hopped by, they asked the native "whats that?" He replied Kangaroo. The English made drawings of the animal, described it and named it Kangaroo.

Several years later when they deciphered the natives language, they found out that the word Kangaroo meant "I don't know".

No offence intended, just a good story I heard.

Happy Trails

Len

[rooster]

I heard a story of how the F word came about during the time of Queen Victoria. It seems that when a boy got caught with the farmers daughter in the barn he was locked it the locks and his crime was written above his head, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge." After a while that got tired of writting out those words and just put F.U.C.K. above the lads head.

I don't know if this is true or not, but it does make for a good story.

Jim,