On Giving the Finger...or **uck ....

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 4:20 pm

Our modern day flip ain't so modern, got this from another person bored at work.

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 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 labiodental 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."

And yew thought yew knew everything.

MarkB

dlovrien · Post by **dlovrien** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 4:25 pm

If the story was true it would be a lot more interesting.

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

David
Gallus ITM Band Website

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 4:43 pm

Ya, I know, but I'm waiting for my tent to dry to pack it.

What got the French mad at Agincourt, was when the French lords and knights were dehorsed and couldn't move with all the armour in the mud, the English infantry came out and slaughtered them.

Which went against the rules of chivarly at that time.

By the way David, you got a lovely website with some get sound clips and great band name.

MarkB

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 9:05 pm

We decided to spell it ghuck.

Ask Alan.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:33 am

I thought it went back to Roman times. I'll have to check my sources. I've always had a suspicion the above story is apocraphal.

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:12 am

Just a few points.
The gesture supposedly originating with the archers is the "two finger salute" which until recently was much more common in England than the middle finger version.
The French did indeed threaten to mutilate archers by both cutting off the said fingers and gouging out their eyes thus condeming them to a slow lingering death if they couldn't make it back to their own army or to lifelong poverty and beggary if they could. There are a few recorded instances of this being carried out but in the main it was terror propaganda aimed at making archers unwilling to get too far forward in the battle formation.
Forget notions of mediaeval chivalry. The taking of prisoners was purely a business matter. Most of the criticism of Henry for killing the prisoners after Agincourt came from his own knights and men-at-arms who could see their valuable assets vanishing. In fact Henry had to get the archers, who would not have received any ransom money, to do the job.
Most of the much vaunted English archers were in fact Welsh.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:31 am

If you flip yourself off, so to speak, and look at this hand symbol it sort of looks like an erect central part with rounded protuberances on either side of the base. A sort of visual onomatopoeia...

dlovrien · Post by **dlovrien** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 7:46 am

brewerpaul wrote:If you flip yourself off, so to speak, and look at this hand symbol it sort of looks like an erect central part with rounded protuberances on either side of the base. A sort of visual onomatopoeia...
_________________
Got wood?

Paul, your tagline reads kinda funny after a post like that...

BrassBlower · Post by **BrassBlower** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 12:31 pm

dlovrien wrote:
brewerpaul wrote:If you flip yourself off, so to speak, and look at this hand symbol it sort of looks like an erect central part with rounded protuberances on either side of the base. A sort of visual onomatopoeia...
_________________
Got wood?
Paul, your tagline reads kinda funny after a post like that...

nancymae · Post by **nancymae** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 12:59 pm

I like the phrase..."I'll give you the one fingered salute!"....

I'm going to act like a bear now...'Where's my beer!!"

Is it Miller time yet????

In cubicle hell today,
Nancy

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 1:09 pm

I'm in a 5 family carpool, toting kids ages 9-12 to school. I was a little taken aback to hear that one day, when the mom of the only girl was driving, she encouraged all 5 kids to "salute" a driver who'd cut her off. Interesting thing to promote to kids who are already a bit wack.

happyturkeyman · Post by **happyturkeyman** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 4:02 am

I had heard that the pluck word (if you catch my drift) was an acronym. Something about carnal knowledge.

I never believed that, but it seems more probable than that "pluck yew" scenario.

amar · Post by **amar** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:14 am

Main Entry: pluck
Pronunciation: 'p&k
Function: verb
Etymology: akin to Dutch plokken to breed (cattle), Swedish dialect plokka to copulate
intransitive senses
1 usually obscene : COPULATE -- sometimes used in the present participle as a meaningless intensive
2 usually vulgar : MESS 3 -- used with with
transitive senses
1 usually obscene : to engage in coitus with -- sometimes used interjectionally with an object (as a personal or reflexive pronoun) to express anger, contempt, or disgust
2 usually vulgar : to deal with unfairly or harshly : CHEAT, SCREW

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 7:50 am

:roll:
Oh the praties they are small over here,over here.
Oh the praties they are small over here.
The praties they are small
but we ate them skin and all,
for it's better than pluck all
Over here,over here
Oh it's better than pluck all over here.

Traditional Irish Prayer.

Slan,
D.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:46 am

The word came from a Germanic root. Today we use the word 'people' as they would have used the word 'folk'. Slightly obscure but not byond the average person's imagination is the verb.