Putting the Finger on History

The 'Car Talk' show (on NPR) with Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, have a  feature called the 'Puzzler', one of their recent Puzzlers was about the Battle of Agincourt. The French, who were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle,  threatened to cut a certain body part off of all captured English soldiers so that they could never fight again.

The English won in a major upset and waved the body part in question at the  French in defiance. The puzzler was: What was this body part? This is the answer submitted by a listener:

Dear Click and Clack,

Thank you for the Agincourt 'Puzzler', which clears up some profound questions of  etymology, folklore and emotional symbolism. The body part which the French proposed to cut off of the English after defeating them was, of course, the middle finger, without which it is impossible to draw the renowned English longbow. This  famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and so the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking yew".

Thus, when the victorious English waved their middle fingers at the defeated  French, they said, "See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!"

Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant  plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows), 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 are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter.

It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".

And yew all thought yew knew everything!

You would be amazed at how many people are willing to take the information above as the complete truth. The question arises, "How does one evaluate  information on Internet?" The answer lies in the general rules for evaluating information sources anywhere. Later in this lesson you will be asked to do just that.

Now that you have read the Click and Clack version let me give you another version that seems much more believable, but how can you be sure. Is the source any more reliable than the radio show listener?

[ Previous ] [ Next ]

[ OII Home Page ]