The sign is said to date from the Battle of Agincourt, from the French habit of cutting off the two fingers needed to draw a bow from captured English archers - archers with those fingers remaining would display them to the French as an insult. Unfortunately there's no evidence to support this story, as there don't seem to be any recorded instances of it from before the twentieth century.
The "V-sign" is basically the peace sign facing the other way (so palm towards gesturer). It's a particularly British offensive gesture, being taken over now by the more widespread "giving the finger", which came over from America. When I was younger I always had the sense that it wasn't quite as rude as the one fingered salute, although I have no idea if that's the case.
The sign is said to date from the Battle of Agincourt, from the French habit of cutting off the two fingers needed to draw a bow from captured English archers - archers with those fingers remaining would display them to the French as an insult. Unfortunately there's no evidence to support this story, as there don't seem to be any recorded instances of it from before the twentieth century. 26/4/2013 04:38:11 am
I always thought that the V-sign was to do with cutting off archers' fingers, but good old Stephen Fry explained the real reason on QI. For the life of me, I can't remember what it was! 29/4/2013 09:10:40 pm
Interesting. I'm always fascinated by the sorts of things (gestures, etc.) other cultures find offensive. Comments are closed.
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