Professor Donahue
What Ollie Should See
Wed Oct 15 16:00:49 2003
12.37.44.235

Message"Giving the Finger"

Isn't history more fun when you know something about it?
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Giving the Finger

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 be
incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon
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!

"PLUCK YEW!"

Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult
consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually
changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words
often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are
mistakenly thought to have something to do with an
intimate encounter. 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 everything...