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Larry Wan
In the current film,
Titanic, the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack (another character). Many
people who have seen the film, question whether "giving the finger" was done
around the time of the Titanic disaster, or was it a more recent gesture invented by some
defiant seventh-grader. According to research, here's the true story:
Giving 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" (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! 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 fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the
0ne-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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