Monday 15 June 2009

Pluck you lol


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 tell you all about it since it's something totally new for me, never thought it would be this way! 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 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! And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing.
P.S. Pluck you made me crack up in a time I was really depressed in :D

18 comments:

rencontrer Pauline said...

pluck yew hahahhha

Why not said...

hahahaah I did not know it was for that... those british and his sense of humour hahha

Cuteandcuddly said...

thanks for the history lesson :)

walla that was very interesting now i can show off and tell people i know how the middle finger became a insult :)

Bliss said...

INTERESTING!!!!
i'm so using that word =D

Dreamer;* said...

haha, I loved this.
oh! and, pluck you :D

Anonymous said...

LOOOOOOL, pluck yew!

Candy said...

super weeeeird!i would never imagine that the middle finger has a history :S

thnx for sharing =)

Anonymous said...

hahahaa great find and good to share...

To always knew the middle finger story origin came from the English and French wars.. but its the first time I hear about Pluck you :D

thanks for sharing :P

Errant said...

oh ahahhahaha .. that's the best history article I've ever read ...

amani said...

Lool, important info from wala from history

Faith said...

LOL! Hilarious!
But makes perfect sense now :D

Fajorie™ said...

looooooooool
this is really funny ;p

Nani_37 said...

loool .. NICE !!

Anonymous said...

LOOOOL! Sweetie miss you a lot!

His Sweetheart said...

I got many pluck you over here loooool :D

Thanks I should say lol


Catherine, miss ya mooooooooooore

Standy said...

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!! intersting!!

Project Kenya 2011 said...

Very, very interesting indeed!

Lori said...

lol that is too funny. I'd already heard that the FU phrase was from Germany and was roughly (no pun intended) as "ram"...I like your story better! You can bet I'll share it with the kids! lol