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From: "Sam Blanning" <enquiries@nationalcoursingclub.org>
Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art
Subject: Re: The History of Giving the Finger
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 19:22:27 -0000
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"William R. Snyder" <usmarine@erols.com> wrote in message
news:3DCFE6CA.E133849F@erols.com...
> The History of Giving the Finger:
>                                       _
>                                     /'_/)
>                                   ,/_  /
>                                  /    /
>                            /'_'/'   '/'__'7,
>                         /'/    /    /    /"  /_\
>                       ('(    '    '     _~/'   ')
>                         \                 '     /
>                          '\'   \           _.7'
>                            \              (
>                              \             \
>
> Giving the Finger
>
*snip*

> 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.
>
> Since'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, 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.

That 'pluck yew' bit sounds a tad tenuous to me. I always heard that the
French cut *two* fingers off the English archers, so the traditional English
salute is with two fingers up, not one. The symbol was later partly
corrupted, partly reinvented, rather like the 'thumbs up/down' gesture, to
one finger making a fisting reference.