Giving of 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 they would 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  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".

Feel free to "flip it"  with pride...... and now understanding.

This was pilfered from an email sent to me and in no way were any birds or bows hurt during this process.