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.

Fiction is always more fun than fact.

So even going back to Greek times, taking it up the bum was frowned upon. Now it seems it is more acceptable, even though no less disgusting. Perhaps if it was dealt with severely, perverts like Sandusky wouldn't be so brazen.

I won't ask, and I sure shouldn't be able to tell. Keep it in the closet you disgusting perverts.

lol

That's probably the most strained bit of folk etymology I've ever run across. The "f" word goes much further back than even the Greeks and Romans, deriving from a Sanskrit root which meant something like "shrivel up and die" without necessarily having a sexual context. Some form of gesture to accompany the expletive is common; in Italy it's a closed fist with the tip of the thumb projecting between the index and second fingers, In England, the erect middle finger is used occasionally but more commonly the first and second fingers are held up spread in a "V" (with the back of the hand forward, as opposed to Chuchill's "V for victory").

By the way, the English bowman's arrows were fletched with goose, not pheasant, feathers. Also, I don't think that the Greeks, and the Romans, were all that much opposed to homosexual practices; read Homer.

Sanskrit? B.S.

"The Oxford English Dictionary states that the ultimate etymology is uncertain, but that the word is "probably cognate" with a number of native Germanic words with meanings involving striking, rubbing, and having sex."

Most European languages, including German, are members of the Indo-European family of languages whose ultimate source is Sanskrit.