Why is flipping the bird called the bird

Prior to speaking the mother language of where they are born, babies often use gestures to communicate to their parents. Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter. Sign In Create Account.

Photo via Pixabay. The middle finger is way older than you think. November 9, , pm. River Donaghey. Tagged: Trump socrates middle-finger gestures flipping the bird juli briskman. A raised middle finger reflects something detestable, and shows whoever committed the offense just how awful we think it is.

All Rights Reserved. Radbourn is first from the left in the standing row, giving the finger over his teammate's shoulder. Features History Middle Finger. Share This Story. Sign up for Complex notifications for breaking news and stories. No Thanks Allow. The gesture is much older. The Romans did not invent this gesture, however. Even then, the middle finger has a clear, obscene and sexual use. It is unlikely that the ancient Greeks were the founders for flipping the birdie. More likely, flipping someone off goes back into prehistory.

Here's a 20th century translation of The Clouds :. If you look up the definition of fillip you will see that it is "a blow or gesture made by the sudden forcible straightening of a finger curled up against the thumb". This is where flip came from; where "the Bird" derived from I have no idea! But fillip pronounced flip is obvious. It came from an English battle between the French over a Cliffside town.

English and archers, the French saw the need to take out the archers middle finger so they could not train another generation of archers. The English subsequently won the war, and walked around the town with their middle finger still intact.

They would show the Frenchman their middle finger and proclaim I can still flip the bird, a reference to an arrow. String on the bow, known as a yew, is also how we have flipping the bird and plucking the yew coming together as flipping the bird meaning fuck you.

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