Middle Finger Pointing?

[Wychaert]

The English put up Two fingers, don't they?
I always tought that the French cut off the index and middlefinger.

[Way of Deception]

The English put up Two fingers, don't they?
I always tought that the French cut off the index and middlefinger.

Yes the 'V sign'. I don't think pointing your middle finger has any significance in England.

[Wulfram]

Yes the 'V sign'. I don't think pointing your middle finger has any significance in England.

It is unofficially known as the "palm-back v-sign", which distinguishes it from the palm-forward v-sign used by hippies and Winston Churchill .



I have also seen it used like in the following image, with the other hand placed in the crook of the arm flashing the sign:

The strangest thing about this rude gesture is that nobody knows where it comes from, or even what the two fingers are supposed to represent. The earliest description of an insulting V-sign comes from the French writer, François Rabelais. In his comic epic, Gargantua And Pantagruel (1532), he described a duel of gestures between two characters, Panurge and Thaumast:

Then (Panurge) stretched out the forefinger and middle finger or medical of his right hand, holding them asunder as much as he could, and thrusting them towards Thaumast... Thaumast began then to wax somewhat pale, and to tremble...

In Britain, the V-sign - when done with the palm backwards - is a rude insult, meaning "Get Stuffed!". Although it is now losing ground to the American single finger, it is still seen from time to time. Recent two-finger saluters include deputy PM John Prescott, Liam Gallagher of Oasis and England striker, Wayne Rooney.

The British sign is probably unrelated to Panurge's gesture, which may well have been invented by Rabelais, along with the other strange gestures used in the duel. The rude V-sign is unknown in France, where people are more likely to insult each other with a forearm jerk or an American finger.

The first solid evidence of the rude V-sign dates from 1901, when the Edwardian film-makers Mitchell and Kenyon were filming workers outside Parkgate ironworks in Rotherham. A surly young man, unhappy to be filmed, can be seen making the gesture aggressively to the camera. A photograph of a 1914 football crowd also shows a man making the sign. Since it was then well-understood, it probably goes back to the Victorian period. It is likely to be working-class in origin, since the upper-class Winston Churchill, who began by making his Victory V-sign palm forwards, had to be told that it was rude.

[Northern Paladin]

you are talking about the obscene gesture right?

I mean this:



or is this thread about something else?

[Elessar]

you are talking about the obscene gesture right?

I mean this:



or is this thread about something else?

No, I'm talking about pointing, not "giving the finger" or "flipping the bird"
Pointing or pushing, plain and simple

[Wychaert]

haha Lol, Thats a Dutch kid, a little Fyenoord supporter!
A few year after this picture was taken, a TV show ask that family to take care of a little Jewish girl from Amsteveen)Amsterdam) for a week.
Fyenoord is a football club from Rotterdam who is the worst foe of Ajax, wich is a football club from Amterdam.
Rotterdam is a working class city, Ajax supporters always call them vieze kakkerlakken(filthy cockroaches)
Amsterdam Is the capital city, whit a lot of Jewish influences. Rotterdammers always call those folks from Amsterdam kankerjoden (cancerjews)
So you can imagine that was a funny episode on TV!

Back ontopic, I never piont with middle finger.... lol

[Granraude]

Pretty normal here in Norway. At least her in the southern parts.

I point, and push buttons with the middle finger alot.

[Witta]

It's an English thing, as during warfare with the French the English Longbowmen were feared by every French soldier on the field, so much that when one was captured they would cut off their middle finger so they could no longer fire their bow as well, and as such the English stuck their middle finger out as a sign of defience to mean "Come and take it Frog!".

Fun fact of the day

No, it was two fingers. The middle finger is an American thing and it means something different entirely.

[Barreldriver]

No, it was two fingers. The middle finger is an American thing and it means something different entirely.

We use two fingers for some gestures, though it's different than ya'lls. Two fingers in America is for indicating tight purses (our two fingers though isn't "V", but "ll"). Three to indicate a broken in purse.