hopefully this will come thru.Caroline--- On Thu 08/05, Janet Ponton < janpon18_at_hotmail.com > wrote:From: Janet Ponton [mailto: janpon18_at_hotmail.com]To: undisclosed-recipients@, @Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2004 09:25:51 -0700Subject: Important History LessonWell, now......here's something I never knew before, and now that Iknow it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligentfriends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn't historymore fun when you know something about it?_Giving the FingerBefore the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipatingvictory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger ofall captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would beimpossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore theywould be incapable of fighting in the future.This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and theact of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluckyew"). Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won am
ajor upset and began mocking the French by waving their middlefingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!"PLUCK YEW!"Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonantcluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentalsfricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with theone-finger-salute!It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used withthe longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."And yew thought yew knew everything
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Received on 2004-08-19 22:56:27