And On We Blindly Stumble! 3.4

The history of the middle finger salute
http://sify.com/news/offbeat/fullstory.php?id=13276462

Saturday, 04 October , 2003, 09:55

We got this in an email, you know one of those chain emails you never know the origin of. And we thought we might as well share it with our readers. So here goes the history of one of mankind’s favourite expressions – showing the middle finger.
Apparently, just before the famous battle of Agincourt between the French and the English in 1415, the former, anticipating victory, 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.

Now, the weapon was made of wood from the 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!

Linguists feel that since 'pluck yew' is rather awkward to pronounce, 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.

Now, go brag!