Man, you learn something new every day!
LOL!!
On Aug 20, 2004, at 1:56 AM, caysue wrote:
> 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
> amajor 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 2004-08-20 07:47:11