Why is the middle finger offencive

It goes on to state that after an unexpected victory, the English soldiers mocked the defeated French troops by waving their middle fingers here. Although it could be intended as humorous, the image on social media is historically inaccurate. It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the middle finger gesture originated, but some historians trace its roots to ancient Rome.

Originally representing the erect phallus, the gesture conveys simultaneously a sexual threat to the person to whom it is directed and apotropaic means of warding off unwanted elements of the more-than-human. In the book, Corbeill points to Priapus, a minor deity he dates to BC, which later also appears in Rome as the guardian of gardens, according to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Greece and Rome here. The episode occurred not on a chat show nor in the salons of New York or London, but in 4th Century BC Athens, when the philosopher Diogenes told a group of visitors exactly what he thought about the orator Demosthenes, according to a later Greek historian.

The middle finger, extended with the other fingers held beneath the thumb, is thus documented to have expressed insult and belittlement for more than two millennia. Ancient Greek philosophers, Latin poets hoping to sell copies of their works, soldiers, athletes and pop stars, schoolchildren, peevish policemen and skittish network executives have all been aware of the gesture's particular power to insult and inflame.

By doing it, you are offering someone a phallic gesture. It is saying, 'this is a phallus' that you're offering to people, which is a very primeval display. During Sunday night's broadcast of the Super Bowl, America's most-watched television programme of the year, British singer M.

The gesture is widely known to Americans as flipping the bird, or just giving someone the finger. The Romans had their own name for it: digitus impudicus - the shameless, indecent or offensive finger. In the Epigrammata of First Century AD by the Latin poet Martial, a character who has always enjoyed good health extends a finger, "the indecent one", at three doctors.

The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that German tribesmen gave the middle finger to advancing Roman soldiers, says Thomas Conley, a professor emeritus of communication and classics at the University of Illinois, who has written about the rhetoric of insults. Earlier, the Greeks used the middle finger as an explicit reference to the male genitalia.

In BC, the playwright Aristophanes puns in his comedy The Clouds about dactylic finger rhythm, with a character gesturing first with his middle finger and subsequently with his crotch. The gesture's origins may extend even further back: male squirrel monkeys of South America are known to gesture with the erect penis, says Dr Morris. The middle finger, which Dr Morris says probably arrived in the US with Italian immigrants, is documented in the US as early as , when a pitcher for the Boston Beaneaters gave it in a joint team photograph with the rival New York Giants.

In northern Europe, the fig is considered an overt sexual invitation -- which could be revolting or welcome, depending on the circumstances. But in modern-day Greece -- as in France, Turkey, and many other nations -- the fig is an outright offense, as it was for Dante. The V sign -- index and middle finger extended and spread -- usually stands for victory.

And Richard Nixon's use of the V was equally iconic, if more paradoxical, since he flashed it during the Vietnam War and just after his resignation from office. Alternately, the hippies used the V to signal peace and love to their fellow protesters.

But as those who've traveled to Britain might know, the V can backfire with a flick of the wrist. Palm out, the sign is encouraging, an announcement of victory or peace; turn the palm in, however, and the V broadcasts to any Anglo bystanders a "Piss off!

As you can probably guess, this leads to embarrassing mishaps. President George H. Bush, for example, made the mistake of attempting the V during his visit to Australia: his hand was turned the wrong way, though, so he was shamed, mocked, and reviled by the press.

Early V signs in history and literature Why would the V sign be insulting? One obvious answer is that it doubles the implication of the middle finger -- and everyone knows two phalli are worse than one.

But thank heavens there's a more engaging though likely apocryphal origin-story. During the Hundred Years' War, chivalrous French knights were frustrated by the undignified combat methods of English longbowmen.

They fought from a distance, ran when confronted, and, worst of all, they were usually poor. So, legend says, the French threatened to sever the bowfingers fore and middle of any archer they captured in battle.

Turns out it wasn't just English weapons that were unchivalrous. And, sure enough, during the absurd exchange, Pantagruel flashes the V at his foe among other more grotesque signs -- perhaps the first explicit reference to what is now a favorite British insult. It's intended effect, whatever that may be, is supposedly magnified by bringing both arms into play -- either by pushing down on the elbow of the thrusting arm, or reaching across the chest and slapping the thrusting arm's shoulder.