I would have been your daddy, but I didn't have change for a five.

[torquemonkey]

So, where/when did the middle finger become an insult?

 

[Frogman]

http://www.ooze.com/finger/html/history.html

 

[torquemonkey]

That is a bit different than the version I had learned. More indepth, logical and most assuredly Frogman like. Thank you!

 

[MrWilson]

It goes back to the british fighting the french at the battle of acre. The french had a bad habbit of cutting off the middle fingers of captured bowmen so they could not shoot...so, for reasons i dont remember, at the onset of the battle the british flipped the first bird at the french...Who better to recieve it?

 

[MarkVIII93]

For those that might need some pointers...
http://www.ooze.com/finger/html/how_to.html

 

[torquemonkey]

It goes back to the british fighting the french at the battle of acre. The french had a bad habbit of cutting off the middle fingers of captured bowmen so they could not shoot...so, for reasons i dont remember, at the onset of the battle the british flipped the first bird at the french...Who better to recieve it?

That was the version I had. The reason for cutting off hte middle finger was, the French cut off British prisoners middle fingers out of fear and rage from the "new" Long Bow that the British were using to hit targets as far away as 250 yds. The Archers used the middle their middle finger to "pluck" the bow. At the end of the battle the Brits showed thier middle finger to the French as a sign that they still had thier finger and won the battle.