The origins of this gesture are highly speculative. It is identified as the digitus impudicus ("impudent finger") in Ancient Roman writings. It was defined there as a gesture intended to insult another. It has been noted that the gesture resembles an erect penis. Ancient Romans 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."
In Canada, showing the middle finger is called the Trudeau salute after Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau because of a famous photo of him giving the finger to some protesters. He was well known for telling people what he thought of them.
A popular, but apocryphal, story derives it from the gestures of English archers at Agincourt. The myth claims that the French cut off fingers from archers, and that the 'finger' was a sign of defiance by those who retained their fingers. The same story also claims that 'fuck you' is a corruption of 'pluck yew' since bows were made of yew, or the phrase "I can still pluck you!".
While it has been debunked many a time, this story still crops up.
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