Where did it originate from? and why is it considered an inapporiate behavior socially?
In: Other
Sweet baby Jesus. Can I be I the only person who thinks the middle finger is the finger you use to digitally penetrate ie finger-f’ck and thus means fuck?!?!?!
I’m not sure how true this is, but from what I was told, the insult dates back to one of medieval, or earlier wars, between the British and the French. Instead of out right killing the captured, they would send them back to their respective camps missing the index, and middel finger. So not only an injured solider, but a useless solider because they can no longer fire their bow and arrow or crossbow. To rub it in the released prisoner the camp would wave their index and middle finger, or just the one
Seeing lots of people here saying it’s meant to suggest an erect dick and means, pretty literally, “Fuck you.” Might be true, but I’ll chime in with another story I’ve heard, though I’m not sure if this is historically vetted or a folk origin story.
In medieval warfare, prisoners of war were often released (killing them might have created more of an uproar than the country wanted to deal with) but might be marked or punished in ways to make them unfit to fight again. So a swordsman might have his right arm broken and poorly set so it would never be strong enough to wield a sword in battle again. Similarly, an archer might have their middle finger or fingers cut off so they’d be ruined as archers. In either case, the released prisoner would be able to take up common labor in the future but never be an effective soldier again — a reasonably fair punishment, as standards of the day went.
So, an upraised middle finger might then signal: “Ha! I’ve never been captured and am still totally capable of grabbing a weapon and fucking you up!”
ELI5? Because it looks like a PP.
Robert whul explaining the finger.
So from what I understand it’s daring back to english longbow archers that used their middle finger to pluck the strings of their “yew” bows. The enemy would capture them and sever their middle finger, so those with them intact would flip off those same enemies saying something along the lines of “I can still pluck yew”. Which became “fuck you”.
That sounds totally inaccurate now that I say it. But a teacher in like middle school showed me a video (before YouTube was really big) about this and treated it like a fact. I’m almost sure it’s wrong. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Or where this notion came from? Again, I’m very certain this is probably bullshit. It was from one of those “little known facts” shows that sprung up around when mythbusters was still big.
When the french captured english archers they would cut off the middle finger so that they could never use a bow again. So when the english would fight the french they would show them their middle finger as an insult and a threat.
It looks like a dingdong. The Thumb four finger and ring and pinky finger look like testicles while the middle finger resembles a shaft.
Don’t know where it came from, but it is a hand gesture that means, “Fuck you” when you use it towards someone.
Latest Answers