History of the Middle Finger

[Riley]

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, hugely outnumbering and thus confident of victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all English soldiers captured in the conflict. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and as such, the archers would be useless for any future fighting. This famous longbow was made of the native English Yew tree and the act of drawing the longbow in medieval times was known as 'plucking the yew' (or, 'to pluck yew'). Much to their bewilderment the French were soundly thrashed in battle by the English who then took great delight in mocking the defeated frogs by waving their middle finger and proudly proclaiming "See, we can still pluck yew!" The wearing of a leather & chainmail archer's helmet made the statement of "Pluck Yew" rather awkward and clumsy to enunciate so as a consequence, the difficult consonent cluster at the beginning gradually evolved to a labiodentials-fricative 'F'. Nonetheless the words were still used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute and (particularily in the British colonies of Canada and New Zealand) it remains to this very day an APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH! It is also in recognition of the pheasant feathers on the arrow fletching that the symbolic gesture is commonly known as "flicking the bird". Here endeth the lesson. So, until now, yew probably thought yew knew every plucking thing!

 

 

[facthunter]

My middle finger is the longest but the index finger is the strongest being the one that is used generally against the thumb for holding things. Sounds a good yarn.. Nev

 

 

[Marty_d]

The basics are right as far as I know, the history of holding up either 1 or 2 fingers to the French as a mocking salute by English bowmen has been documented. The bit about plucking the yew is probably made up.

 

But the middle finger, along with index finger, is used for archery - especially with the longbows which took training from adolescence to use - there's no way they could draw the bow with one finger.

 

Having said that, I quite like the French. I prefer to raise the finger at individuals based on stupidity rather than country of origin.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Much to their bewilderment the French were soundly thrashed in battle by the English .... The wearing of a leather & chainmail

So this famous battle took place in Sydney?

 

 

[Marty_d]

Might have been Brisbane.... who did John Hopoate play for? I believe he was pretty quick with the finger...

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

bloody AFL followers....Hopoate played for a Sydney team....Manly...Broncos don't have bum bandits

 

 

[Marty_d]

You're saying a place called "Manly" doesn't have bum bandits???

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Manly is the Sydney team Hopoate played for and poked for....no loose fingers at the Brisbane Broncos football club hahahahahahah

 

 

[Riley]

Might have been Brisbane.... who did John Hopoate play for? I believe he was pretty quick with the finger...

Am I correct in thinking 'stinky finger'?

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Might have been Brisbane.... who did John Hopoate play for? I believe he was pretty quick with the finger...

Poor old John didn't understand that you had to win a Grand Final before you can wear an NRL Premiers' ring on your finger.

 

The Tigers punished him by making him go around the League's Bar cleaning up and pushing all the stools in.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

you mean the sea eagles punished him hahahaha

 

 

[metalman]

Might have been Brisbane.... who did John Hopoate play for? I believe he was pretty quick with the finger...

I'd heard hopoate had his wedding ring stolen in the dressing rooms,,,,apparently some assh0le grabbed it!

 

 

[rankamateur]

In a past life as a kid at school I studied a play by Williamson about the AFL, "The Club", prepared me to not be quite so dismayed about hopoates little effort, really why would you do it? In the ruff and tumble would the victim really notice enough to be put off the game?

 

 

[metalman]

I would !,,,,,,

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Specially with the size of Hopawartays finger !!

 

 

[Oksinay]

Was that John Stopafarty?

 

 

[Stoney]

I am surprised that no one has made the link between the French, archery and flying.

 

The tail area on our planes is called the empennage , which is a French word meaning to fletch or to feather as in on the tail end of an arrow.

 

Now, wasn't that interesting.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

I am surprised that no one has made the link between the French, archery and flying.The tail area on our planes is called the empennage , which is a French word meaning to fletch or to feather as in on the tail end of an arrow.

 

Now, wasn't that interesting.

Thank-you for bringing this thread back on course. I'm an ex archer (RAF team in Singapore) and the two finger 'salute' is the story I believe to be true..

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Thank-you for bringing this thread back on course. I'm an ex archer (RAF team in Singapore) and the two finger 'salute' is the story I believe to be true..

As a kid I would do the 2 finger "up yours" and then it was suddenly the third only - always wondered how and why the changeover?

 

As for Hopoate, the blame really lay with his Coach Terry lamb who gave specific instructions to the players before the match; "If you see an opening, stick it up them" ...

 

After refusing an offer to play soccer in England for Arsenal, he is now enjoying his retirement sitting around watching movies such as 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Finger', 'Goldfinger' while eating his favorite sticky date pudding and finger buns along with the occasional choc wedge.

 

Anyway, enough poking into this.

 

 

[Marty_d]

You're a crack-up, Bex!

 

 

[ayavner]

 

:)