GIVING SOMEONE
THE FINGER!
The use of the middle finger, according to historical documents, evolved from a most natural chain of events. In case your teachers failed to relate to you the history of the middle finger, we will do so here.
It all began many many years ago, in a far away land.
It all began in France, just before the Battle of Agincourt in the year 1415. The French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger, the French felt, the English soldiers would be unable to draw the renowned English longbow, and therefore, be incapable of fighting in the future. The longbow was a fearful weapon and gave the English a distinct advantage.
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")
But, as history shows, the French lost, In a major upset, at least to the French's viewpoint, the English won. Following the unexpected upset, the French were even more demoralized when the English began to mock the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated and demoralized French and shouting "See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!
Now over the years, as is often the case, some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since "pluck yew" is rather difficult to say as is "peasant 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 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 yew thought yew knew everything.