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Old 07-19-2009, 04:02 AM   #1 (permalink)
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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 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." 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!"

Over the years, some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), 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.

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."
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Old 07-19-2009, 08:05 AM   #2 (permalink)
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Good to know,thanks.
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Old 07-19-2009, 08:08 AM   #3 (permalink)
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I'm ants at a picnic:

snopes.com: Pluck Yew
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Old 07-19-2009, 10:30 AM   #4 (permalink)
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"labiodental fricative"

I would have bet that this was the first use of this term here on tfp... and lost! http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/general...ths-babes.html

Screw Snopes, I like this story better!
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Old 07-19-2009, 11:35 AM   #5 (permalink)
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That was awesome! The best intellectual joke I've come across yet on TFP.
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Old 07-19-2009, 12:53 PM   #6 (permalink)
comfortably numb...
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iliftrocks View Post
I'm ants at a picnic:

snopes.com: Pluck Yew
please note that i posted this here and not in the "post a truth" thread in tilted nonsense...
__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.
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