The Car Talk show (on NPR) with Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, have
a feature called the "Puzzler."
A recent Puzzler was about the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 AD. The French, who
were overwhelmingly favored to win the battle, threatened to cut a certain body
part off 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 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."