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 Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:33 pm
I've always been interested in how things started. Things that people don't usually know how they started or what they used to mean even if they use them in daily life now. So do you know of any? fact or rumor?
Example:
Giving the Middle Finger/ Flipping the Bird
Started because it's the middle finger that's used to pluck the bow. Back around the 1400s the French proposed they cut off the middle fingers of their conquered enemies which would render their archers useless. When the English won a major upset over the French their armies began displaying their middle fingers in victory/insult to show that they still had them
I've also heard that the feathers on the arrows led way to this gesture being called "flipping the bird". And that there was use of the term "Pluck Yew" as in they were still able to pluck their bows made of yew wood. It's easy to figure out what that last one supposedly evolved into, but I've only heard the last two from one source so far so I don't know if that's accurate or not.
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Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:04 am
I heard that the ancient Romans invented it as a gesture meaning "up yours".
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 12:13 am
Either way,it's very interesting....
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:05 am
When people say they've got a frog in their throat, the saying comes from when they used to hold frogs up to people's mouths to treat illnesses. The frogs actually spit out a chemical that treats some sicknesses. smile
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:24 pm
Cool..I wonder what Wikipedia has to say about the middle finger... Hmmm...
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:15 pm
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:46 am
But remember: not everything wikipedia has to offer is necessarily true...
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:59 pm
Check the citations. 3nodding
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