Received this from a friend today and thought it might amuse. I do not claim
authorship.
Richard Cooperman
67 Morgan 4/4 RHD
A BIT 'O HISTORY
BACKGROUND:
In the Battle of Agincourt, the French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win
the battle, threatened to cut off a certain body part of the all captured
English soldiers so that they could never fight again.
The English won the battle in a major upset and waved the body part in
question at the French in defiance.
QUESTION:
What was this body part?
ANSWER:
The body part which the French proposed to cut off of the English after
defeating them was, of course, the middle finger. Without the middle finger
it is impossible to draw the renowned English longbow. This famous weapon was
made of the native English Yew tree and so the act of drawing the longbow was
known as "plucking yew". Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle
fingers at the defeated French, they said, "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, 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".
And you thought you knew everything
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