“It seems like such an ... arbitrary, ridiculous thing to just pick a finger and you show it to the person. It’s a finger, what does it mean? Someone shows me one of their fingers and I’m supposed to feel bad. Is that the way it’s supposed to work? I mean, you could just give someone the toe, really, couldn’t you? I would feel worse if I got the toe, than if I got the finger. ’Cause it’s not easy to give someone the toe . . . ”
- Seinfeld: The Robbery (NBC television broadcast June 7, 1990)
The middle finger, the bird, the one-finger salute. You know what we’re talking about.
But did you know that there’s research on the middle finger? Ira P. Robbins, a law professor at American University, authored an article called “Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law” for the UC Davis Law Review. Here are some of his findings. We dare you to read past the abstract.
- The origin of the middle finger likely dates back to more than 2,500 years ago, where it appeared in ancient Greek texts and was used as a phallic symbol.
- The ancient Romans adopted the gesture and called it the “digitus impudicus,” or “the impudent finger.”
- The middle finger later came to America, with the first recorded usage in an 1886 professional baseball team photograph with the Boston Beaneaters and the New York Giants.
- The forearm jerk—making a fist and bending your arm into a right angle, then jerking that forearm up while slapping the upper arm— has the same meaning as the middle finger, but is used more commonly in Europe.
- The backwards peace sign, with the palm facing in, is England’s equivalent to the bird.Similarly, the thumbs-up should be avoided in Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and parts of Italy and Greece.
