Where or when did the middle finger start to mean something bad?
356650
Ok, ready?\nOrigin\nThe origins of this gesture are highly speculative, but is quite possibly up to 2500 years old. It is identified as the digitus impudicus ('impudent finger') in Ancient Roman writings 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. It has been noted that the gesture resembles an erect penis.\n\nAncient Romans also considered an image of an erect phallus as a talisman against evil spells. As a consequence, displaying this gesture to another may not have been a pseudo-sexual insult but rather an insulting statement along the lines of—"I'm going to protect myself against your witchcraft, before you even start" but an even earlier reference is made to ancient farmers using this finger to test hens for coming eggs.\n\nA story that refers to the gestures of longbowmen fighting in the English army at the Battle of Agincourt in particular is often mentioned. The French cut off fingers from captured archers (usually the index and middle finger of the right hand). The English longbowmen who retained their index and middle fingers held them up in a V gesture (V Sign) to show they could still operate their weapons, and this gesture is still offensive in Britain today. Whether this has more to do with the middle finger salute than similarity of common meaning and intent is unknown.\n\nJean Froissart (circa 1337-circa 1404) was a historian as the author of the Chronicle, a document that is essential to an understanding of Europe in the fourteenth century and to the twists and turns taken by the Hundred Years' War. The Chronicle is a primary source of information. The story of the English waving their fingers at the French is told in the first person account by Jean Froissart. However, the description is not of an incident at the Battle of Agincourt, but rather at the siege of a castle nearby in the Hundred Years War. Adding to the evidence is that by all accounts Jean Froissart died before the battle actually took place; it was therefore rather difficult for him to have written about it.
604974
It has to do when the french and english were fighting. The french would cut off the english mens middle finger when captured because thats the finger they would use for their long bows. So at the end of the war the english would show the french their middle finger to show they still had theirs. To make a long story short.
1076425
First, the supposed connection with wife-beating is a modern urban legend.\n\nThe term refers to making a quick, approximate judgment.   Its  early uses seem connected with the practice of carpenters, also tailors and artists.  \n\nThe notion of using the thumb to measure parallels many other traditional uses of body parts to make measurements  --some of which are even ensconced as measuring terms in modern English,  e.g.,  foot,  hand.  In fact, the inch measure itself originates from the use of part of the thumb --between the thumb's tip and its first joint.  (Other measures based on body parts include cubits and palms).\n\nThe suggestion that the expression "rule of thumb" came from a rule about the limits of physically chastizing one's wife are very recent and seem based largely on misunderstandings.   (Even if anyone ever actually applied the expression that way, this is NOT its origin.  Its use for a rough & ready measurement goes back much further.)
48365
It appeared in the mid 1600s, probably as a reference to the thumb's use as a rough measure of an inch by seamstresses or carpentars.
4846
the word okay was used by the american airforce staff when the airplanes were ready for the pilotfighters to go to action ,the pilots used hand signal equivalent to the word okay.this word was used since 1940.it became part of the north american culture where it is widely used today.ok
555893
It's slang from the UK & Ireland, a made up phrase to avoid cursing when surprised or annoyed.\n\nIt's also a slang term for a sexual position.
267192
My goodness, people jump the gun, don't they.  Don't feel stupid, because it is NOT a stupid question.  Answer 2 is correct.  It originated in INDIANA.  So "DUH" to the person that gave you a hard time.  Do research before you ridicule someone, sheesh!
578871
Middle fingers unite!
969140
It is not a very good word, and there is no direct translation. It is something like f**k or s**t, and usually used when you drop something or do something wrong.
394093
pinche, it means damned. Like that damn George, he can never get anything right. It is used pretty often though, and may not always be intended to be bad.
248992
it's not the bad finger, it's the mind that uses it.  Not all countries think that is the bad finger.  In the middle east it's the left hand and the bottom of the foot
129302
The word you are referring to was a place people were from. Thats how at that time they were labeled, by where they had been taken from. It didn't originate with 2 G's but one as in Niger. But over time thats how all african americans became reffered to. In all honesty, it might not mean as much as it does had it not been used the way it was. But because it was said with such hate and disgust it became a new curse word. And I think the reason that african americans can use to word on each other without being offended is this. Not all of us are like them and we can't say that we know how it is to be them. So for someone of a different race to say it to them is to be discriminated against.
984785
The middle finger? Like the one you flip people off with? That doesn't mean anything. So don't worry about it!
1114402
Tool has long been a crude term for the male appendage.\n\nVarious crude terms for the male appendage have been used as derogatory names for people.  \n\nIt was inevitable that tool would eventually become a derogatory term.  As to when it did, that's anyone's guess, although I noticed it becoming more prevalent in the '90s
78240
Subject:         HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE FINGER\n\nWell, now......here's something I never knew before,\nand now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it\non to my more intelligent friends in the hope that\nthey, too, will feel edified.\nIsn't history more fun when you know something about it?\n                                         \n \n                   Giving the Finger\n\nBefore the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French,\nanticipating victory over the English, proposed to\ncut off the middle finger of all captured English\nsoldiers.  Without the middle finger it would be\nimpossible to draw the renowned English longbow\nand therefore they would be incapable of fighting\nin the future.\nThis famous weapon was made of the native English\nYew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was\nknown as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").\nMuch to the bewilderment of the French, the English\nwon a major upset and began mocking the French by\nwaving their middle fingers at the defeated\nFrench, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!\n"PLUCK YEW!"\nSince 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the\ndifficult consonant cluster at the beginning has\ngradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F',\nand thus the words often used in conjunction\nwith the one-finger-salute!\nIt is also because of the pheasant feathers on the\narrows used with the longbow that the symbolic\ngesture is known as "giving the bird."\nAnd yew thought yew knew everything
62526
around the 1830's because in theater the gesture was the same as "hissing" an actor- they would either hiss or "flip the bird" - now people just boo basically but in between then and now people used to boo and hiss.  The hissing sound was related to the hissing sound of geese, and thats how the term "flipping the bird" came to be.  Now we just call the middle finger the "bird" because it is the finger used when we "flip the bird"
1170816
This originated in the early 1980s. It is generally regarded as an American expression. This item from the New York newspaper the Syracuse Herald-American, Feb. 1982, which is the earliest version in print that I can find, puts that in some doubt. It's in a piece by Jerry Buck, writing out of Los Angeles, about actress Lauren Tewes