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Post Info TOPIC: In case you didn't know


Kiwi Wannabe


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Date: Oct 4, 2004
In case you didn't know



History of Middle finger


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 changed 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."


And yew thought yew knew everything



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Charles.


"I'm Lois!"


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Date: Oct 4, 2004

Thats really cool Chaga - I shall call on that knowledge the next time I'm in receipt of the fingure from the Jammie King (but dont tell him right?)

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I am the Jammie King!




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Date: Oct 4, 2004

Too late, Dude.  I know exactly what it means.  Rather than meaning 'up yours' or 'swivel on it', it is in fact a method of defiance to a frenchman.  So by flipping you, I am in fact strongly implying that you're french.  Which is really really bad.  Hah!

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and Man of the People





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Date: Oct 4, 2004

Hmm, I had heard this somewhere before...


But surely it's not how the 'F word', an acronym, originated.


Hmmm, maybe I'm wrong too:



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



Word History: The obscenity **** 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 **** 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 **** wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge].”




Yep, wrong, wrong, wrong am I. Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present you with 'The Straight Dope': http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_268b.html




-- Edited by NateO at 21:51, 2004-10-04

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You can't polish a turd


Cpt Acorn Short of An Oaktree


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Date: Oct 4, 2004

Knew the finger bit, not the rest.  Sure I've heard an alternative for the etymology(sp?) of **** though (can't remember it though!).  Nate, if you're saying it's an acronym, question has to be asked of what?

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Razzlesnarglezzvrmptzz


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and Man of the People





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Date: Oct 4, 2004

The link I posted (probably after your post) lists a few, but the author seems to think that these were afterthoughts.

-- Edited by NateO at 21:53, 2004-10-04

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You can't polish a turd


Cpt Acorn Short of An Oaktree


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Date: Oct 4, 2004

"This passion for preposterous acronyms seems to be peculiar to Anglo-Americans"


See Nate, you can't help it, it's your heritage!  Ah, **** the lot of them!  It's a good word, and I shall continue to use it, regardless (or, so I am led to believe, irregardless, for our friends across the pond) of its origin! 



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Razzlesnarglezzvrmptzz


Cpt Acorn Short of An Oaktree


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Posts: 2225
Date: Oct 4, 2004

May I also say, never heard of half of the following:

bang, batter, beef, bumble, blow off the loose corns, bounce the brillo, dance the buttock jig, do a dive in the dark, flimp, flurgle, foin, foraminate, futz, get one's leather stretched, get one's nuts cracked, get one's oil changed, go bird's nesting, go bush-ranging, go like a rat up a rhododendron, go star-gazing on one's back, have a bun in the oven, have a game in the cock-loft, have a leap up the ladder, have hot pudding for supper, hide the ferret, hide the salami, hide the sausage, hive it, jazz it, knock it off, lay some pipe, light the lamp, lose the lamp and pocket the stake, make her grunt, mix one's peanut butter, palliardize, pestle, pheeze, pizzle, play cars and garages, plow, plug, plook, ram, rasp, ride below the crupper, shoot between wind and water, strop one's beak, varnish one's cane, wet one's wick, wind the clock, and work the hairy oracle


and ain't having a bun in the oven being pregnant?



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Razzlesnarglezzvrmptzz


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Date: Oct 4, 2004

Yep, we're idiots!! It seems to be really peculiar to Corporate America, can't even remember half of goofball ones we come up with!


I haven't heard half of those either Sharon!



-- Edited by NateO at 22:39, 2004-10-04

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I am the Jammie King!




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Date: Oct 5, 2004

Does tend to detract from the authors credibility, doesn't it.   Maybe we should have a 'Most Original and Creative Obscenity Without Using Naughty Words' competition.  I'll go first:  'Choccy Starfish Pilot'.

-- Edited by ddvmor at 09:03, 2004-10-05

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