Well now, here’s something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to share it with you and at the finish, I hope you will also 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 British, 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. The 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” to some may be rather difficult to say, the letter P at the beginning, has gradually changed from a sound in which the lips participate, to an easier pronunciation of the substitute letter “F”, and thus used in conjunction with the one-finger salute.
It is because of the pheasant feathers of the arrows, used with the longbow, that the symbolic gesture is known as, “giving the bird.”
Believe it, or not, it is still an appropriate salute to the French today.
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