A History Lesson

[AmerDoux]

If it's a re-post, too bad! 😛


Well, now... here's something I never knew before, and now that I
know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in
the hope that they, too, will feel edified.

Isn't history more fun when you know something about it?

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 they would 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!"
Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually hanged to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute! It is also because of the pheasant 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 everything

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I thought everyone and their brother was practically BORN knowing this...

 

[FoBoT]

thanks for the history lesson/spam

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

 

[GasX]

I still remember the first time Brutuskend's granddad told me this...

 

[Colt45]

stop posting

 

[quakefiend420]

where did you find this?

 

[nageov3t]

this is fake, right? something so stupid just has to be fake 😉

 

[nageov3t]

yup.

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
I still remember the first time Brutuskend's granddad told me this...

:shocked: Did you ask him if it was sad when the Dinosaurs died off?

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: loki8481
this is fake, right? something so stupid just has to be fake 😉

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

snopes is a winner again

 

[ThePresence]

 

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

Originally posted by: loki8481
yup.

http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm

props.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: AmerDoux
If it's a re-post, too bad! 😛

Why would it be a repost? Everyone except you was smart enough to not post something so stupid.

 

[irwincur]

F U C K

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - posted on the tombstones of those that were found guily (and executed) for adultry. That is where this insult is from. In the middle ages it was a great family insult for someone to be found guilty of adultry - not to mention usually pretty expensive as the church would charge a fortune for penance.

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

Originally posted by: irwincur
F U C K

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - posted on the tombstones of those that were found guily (and executed) for adultry. That is where this insult is from. In the middle ages it was a great family insult for someone to be found guilty of adultry - not to mention usually pretty expensive as the church would charge a fortune for penance.

I wonder why people believe these things...

 

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: irwincur
F U C K

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - posted on the tombstones of those that were found guily (and executed) for adultry. That is where this insult is from. In the middle ages it was a great family insult for someone to be found guilty of adultry - not to mention usually pretty expensive as the church would charge a fortune for penance.

Alas, no.

 

[FoBoT]

"In plain English, this means the term's origin is likely Germanic, even though no one can as yet point to the precise word it came down to us from out of all the possible candidates. Further, a few scholars hold differing pet theories outside of the Germanic origin one, theories which appear to have some holes in them."

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

Originally posted by: ActuaryTm

Originally posted by: irwincur
F U C K

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - posted on the tombstones of those that were found guily (and executed) for adultry. That is where this insult is from. In the middle ages it was a great family insult for someone to be found guilty of adultry - not to mention usually pretty expensive as the church would charge a fortune for penance.

Alas, no.

Snopes may have the origin wrong.

[Middle English, attested in pseudo-Latin fuccant, (they) fvck, deciphered from gxddbov.]

Word History: The obscenity fvck is a very old word and has been considered shocking from the first, though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past. Its first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin and English sometime before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, ?Flen flyys,? from the first words of its opening line, ?Flen, flyys, and freris,? that is, ?fleas, flies, and friars.? The line that contains fvck reads ?Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk.? The Latin words ?Non sunt in coeli, quia,? mean ?they [the friars] are not in heaven, since.? The code ?gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk? is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: i was then used for both i and j; v was used for both u and v; and vv was used for w. This yields ?fvccant [a fake Latin form] vvivys of heli.? The whole thus reads in translation: ?They are not in heaven because they fvck wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge].?

Which makes sense, since that's about the time it first appeared in the dictionary.