It is as old as people themselves, easily going back to Roman times and potentially earlier

quite possibly thousands of years old. It is identified as the digitus impudicus (“impudent finger”) in Ancient Roman writings[1] and reference is made to using the finger in the Ancient Greek comedy The Clouds by Aristophanes. It was defined there as a gesture intended to insult another. The widespread usage of the finger in many cultures is likely due to the geographical influence of the Roman Empire and Greco-Roman civilization. Another possible origin of this gesture can be found in the first-century Mediterranean world, where extending the digitus impudicus was one of many methods used to divert the ever present threat of the evil eye.[2]

There is a popular story about English bowmen waving fingers at the French knights who did not manage to cut them off during the Hundred Years’ War. However, this is a confusion with the origins of the V sign, which are themselves in question.[3]

Another possible origin is the phallic imagery of the raised middle finger (the middle finger being the longest finger on the human hand), similar to the Italian version of the bent elbow insult.

Well I can see we need to ask the expert…..The One Million Year Old Man.

Excuse me sir, but if I might have a moment of your time. I mean you seem to have plenty to give.

Oh boy, another smart-mouth; come to bust my chops?

No, No sir. I’m just researching the first time a man ‘gave the bird’ to another person in anger.

The bird uh?

Yes.

Well, it all started back when we had to wipe ourselves with our hand. I mean – no one had invented newspapers and catalogs yet.

When you got old enough to do the deed for yourself – when you’d call out for your mom to come wipe you – your mother would just hold up her middle finger and tell you to do it to yourself. And with this it became “go clean your own bottom”. And as mankind got more civilized he had to find a new ‘act of nature’ that one could do to ones self. So it came to pass that if someone was irritated with you, you could then just ‘go ‘stiff’ yourself’.

Thank you sir, so much.

It was really nothing. I mean with this storeroom of knowledge no one else needs to know this important stuff.

8^{I)

The Entire Bridgemen Drum Corps used this “technique” at the DCI World Championships. They were disqualified in 1977.

The Blue Devils Drumline’s traditional left-handed grip also demonstrates this technique and have won 10 world championships.

Volunteer Firefighter is correct. Here is a little added tidbit of information. The bows they used were made out of yew wood. They kept shouting to the fellows that they were still able to shoot their arrows at (not having their finger cut off). “We can still pluck yew!!” You can see how those words got changed through time with all the different dialects flying about.

Here is an interesting fact that I was told when I was like 19 years old.. My one friend told me long ago, when the French (I think he said it was the French) went to war with their enemies. When they got prisoners of war, they’ll chop off their middle fingers and when they see their enemies again, they’ll “flip them off” saying “hey we got our cross bow finger, where’s yours?”

for the person that said it was because french people cut off their middle fingers, that’s wrong, that dealt with a war with britian.

no one knows where it came from exactly, but as cultures develop so do offensive language and gestures.