Did you know that 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."
> >
> > And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing!
