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History of the Middle Finger
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Together with our sister sites we are the largest and most popular animal, hunting and Archery information sites on the Internet. We are also the most popular after Cabela's. Finally, we get more page views because we have so much more to see.
We started in 1996 as an all-volunteer public service to hunting. No one has ever taken a penny in salary. All our information and pictures are free. Please scroll down to learn more.
Hiistory of the Middle Finger=
1,000s of self defense pages on stun guns, laser and tasers, house alarms and lighting; also a complete Martial Arts Directory for ju jitsu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do et al
1,000s of pages and wonderful pictures of Sail and Power Boats plus 100 new pages on Sailing and Naval History from Salamis to WW II
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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 are often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!
It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the long
bow
that the symbolic gesture is known as "Giving the bird."
