Pluck yew!

Posted by Shuva Brata Deb (Bangalore, India) on 13 March 2006 in People & Portrait.

Thats my colleague Suvij. We were playing around cracking jokes in the evening at office.

For an educative point of view, do you think the placement is correct? Should I have moved it a little more or zommed out more?

More on this topic, it is told that the origin of this gesture came from the French when they used to cut off the middle finger of captured British soldiers of war, so that they wont be able to draw their bows ever again. This action of pulling the arrow and shooting was called "Pluck yew "---the action of the release of the middle finger. They would stick up their middle fingers at them and yell "PLUCK YOU!" which literelly was jesturing that you would shoot him with the arrow by releasing your middle finger. Later over the years this began to take the meaning of a more intimate insulting gesture it is commonly used today.

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Comments (11)

Ashish Sidapara from Singapore, Singapore

Lol, i had no clue about the history really!!

PS: If someone is offended by this gesture, i will pass this url ;-)

13 Mar 2006 5:33am

Jide Alakija from London, United Kingdom

Go a finger shot just like that.

But not in your face as this. Good capture.

13 Mar 2006 7:12am

Jason Kravitz from Brussels, Belgium

I think your placement is about proper - nice job

13 Mar 2006 11:35am

Fantom Poet from United Kingdom

An interesting view of his respect of you ;-)

13 Mar 2006 12:00pm

scott from Savannah, United States

haha, thats funny

13 Mar 2006 3:00pm

Steve Kravitz from Florence, NJ, United States

I never heard this story, but sounds right for the French against the British. The photo is right on.

13 Mar 2006 4:42pm

Aaron Schmidt from Auckland, New Zealand

Thanks for the background! I think the placement is perfect, the finger and hand created a natural frame for the face ... well done.

13 Mar 2006 6:13pm

suresh from Singapore, Singapore

Nice.

14 Mar 2006 1:57am

GeckoZ from Singapore

hahahaa~ interesting oringin!

14 Mar 2006 5:30am

Hervé from Paris, France

I agree with Aaron. Good placement. I do not really know the story. Real or not, this is a good one ! ;)
Nevertheless, it is an old tradition in France to shorten things. In the early middle-age, if a knight had his hair cut, he was so humiliated that he had to die or retire.
After that we invented the guillotine wich was less precise and shortened the whole head of people who were in the wrong place at the wrong moment. I think I prefer the current days when we shorten the legal length of weekly work...

14 Mar 2006 7:53am