In the UK two fingers up is a rude gesture and it comes from battles with the french. If they caught a British archer they removed those fingers so they couldn’t fire a bow. So sticking them up at the enemy and gesturing was showing they had them and would use them to fire arrows at them. I am not an historian, though, and this could just be one of those tales that sounds so true everyone believes it and passes it on.
Well, the middle finger use to represent the ability to draw a bow. Unless I’m making shit up.
According to Wikipedia, it originated in ancient Greece and has always meant the same thing as it does now.
That’s what I heard, but the fellah who told us both might have been making it up
That’s middle and index fingers, with the palm facing backwards. Just a backwards peace sign.
In the UK two fingers up is a rude gesture and it comes from battles with the french. If they caught a British archer they removed those fingers so they couldn’t fire a bow. So sticking them up at the enemy and gesturing was showing they had them and would use them to fire arrows at them. I am not an historian, though, and this could just be one of those tales that sounds so true everyone believes it and passes it on.