Fascinating History Of Showing Someone A Middle Finger

What infamous act meant centuries ago? Shocking progress.

The middle finger is not so offensive when aligned with other fingers of your hand but on its own is as rude as can be.

However, it was not always the middle Finger that had been used for many signs in the past, but it all changed in the 1800s.

Famous celebrities, politicians, rockstars, etc., started using the sign even when the gesture was still viewed as something obscene or immoral.

Below we will briefly go through the history of the gesture of Middle-Finger and try to understand how it became something it is now.

Classic Era Of The Middle Finger And Its Meaning In Different Ancient Cultures

The gesture of the Middle-Finger gesture has been used by many early civilizations and cultures; however, the thing worth noticing is in most of them.

The gesture of the Middle-Finger was viewed as a symbol related to sex, whereas in some, the gesture meant to degrade while in others it was a gesture to intimidate or threaten an individual.

In ancient Greek, the gesture literally meant downwards or buttocks, and it is much like today, where the gesture is often used as an insult towards another person.

The indecent gesture was often used for gays and females who were involved in some kind of anal practice.

Some of the famous Greek philosophers like Socrates said the gesture was something that is close to farting on someone’s face.

While there were those who were using it, like Diogenes, Famous Greek Philosopher, threw up his Middle-Finger in public just to show his dislike to the orator Demosthenes.

The Romans, saw the Middle Finger in the same way as Greeks, and because of the image they had about the infamous Finger, they named it digitus impudicus, which literally translates to offensive Finger.

Romans had many superstitions related to the Middle Finger.

According to books of history, the Finger was used to concoct charms and mark foreheads before casting a spell over someone.

The Arabs, even when it was the Greeks who first used the Middle-Finger gesture, according to history, were certainly not the last ones because the offensive gesture was popular all over the globe.

Everyone’s version of the infamous Finger was a little different from others. As for the Arabs, the gesture was unlike any other.

The standard version of the gesture is where one has Middle-Finger pointed upwards, but for the Arabs, the Middle-Finger was pointed downwards, but the meaning was the same that we all know of.

Archery Often Referred To As Origin Of The Indecent Gesture

It is widely believed that the Middle Finger has something to do with archers, but why?

The origin is often related to archers because of the reference that is given from the Battle of Agincourt, which took place in 1415 between English and French soldiers.

The belief is that the French chopped off the middle Finger of any English soldier they captured — the reason being they wanted to cripple any English soldier from drawing the longbow ever again.

Furthermore, after winning the Battle, English soldiers taunted the French by waving their Middle-Finger at them — what a sight that would have been.

However, the unfortunate fact is that all this is nothing but a made-up story which really kills the excitement. There is no evidence out there which authenticates these claims.

The Arrival Of The Finger In The USA

Until the end of the 1800s, the gesture was not common at all. In fact, it was still in its spreading phase.

The only way the Finger could be known was through people, and didn’t we do a great job in spreading the message of the Finger?

In the United States, it is believed that an Italian immigrant first bought the gift of the infamous Finger with him — metaphorically.

However, the first documented appearance of the Finger is from 1886, when a pitcher from the Boston Beaneaters was photographed while giving the infamous Finger to the rivals New York Giants.

Americans One Of Few Who Got Early Access Before The Message Got Global

Even when the USA didn’t invent the infamous finger gesture, they certainly played their part in making it a global phenomenon.

One of the examples is the North Korean War, where North Koreans took in many American soldiers as captives and tried to show how caring they were even to their prisoners by releasing photographs of the soldiers.

However, what they didn’t know was in every picture the Americans were subtly showing their Middle-Finger to the camera.

The Americans, seeing the images released, could easily spot the Middle Finger, but it took some time for the Koreans to spot the infamous Finger.

Upon noticing, the Koreans asked about the Finger, and the answer they got was — the Finger is a Hawaiian good luck sign.

Some Of The Most Famous Fingers Out There

Throughout history, we see many famous people flipping the derogatory Finger, especially after its global success.

Below you will find some famous photographs of famous fingers.

The iconic Finger of Johnny Cash where instead of dropping the F-bomb, Johnny opted for the infamous finger gesture, 1969.

The most famous political finger of all time is undoubtedly Nelson Rockefeller, who was Gerald Ford’s Vice President at the time.

The gesture got so famous that it was later named The Rockefeller Salute, 1976.

The infamous Finger of famous Galileo Galilei, since his death in 1737, the Finger, along with a couple of others, has been passed on for generations by his loyal followers.

Now Galileo’s Middle Finger can be seen by anyone at the Galileo Museum In Florence Italy.

Final Words

The infamous gesture of Middle-Finger has come a long way since its beginning.

The most surprising part is something that was never deemed right or plain old bad still made its way into the 21st century is rather surprising. Let us see what the future holds for it.

More from the author: