Well now...here is something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel like sharing it with my more intelligent friends on PJ, in the hope they, too, will feel edified. Is not history more fun when you know something about it?

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 draw the renowned English longbow and they would be incapable of fighting in future.

This famous English longbow was made of 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 the middle fingers at the defeated French saying " See, we can still Pluck Yew"!

Since " Pluck Yew" is 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 pleasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".  It is still an appropriate salute to the French today.

And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing. [/color][/size][/b]