• ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      English longbow men would hold up the two fingers they used to pull the bowstring at Frenchmen as an insult because of how effective longbows were against the French.

      Iirc French soldiers would cut those two fingers off a captured or killed longbow user to show their disdain for the weapon.

        • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          From everything I can gather through a quick low level search this is the accepted origin.

          The motion of creating a V with the index and middle finger with the palm facing inward is historically credited to English bowmen insulting French soldiers