http://www.st-andrews-scots.org/mainhall/mharticle7.html
Why are people of noble decent called "bluebloods?" The word "blueblood" traces its origins back to the eighth century. At the time, the Moors ruled large parts of southern Europe, including Spain. The Spanish, who originally had milky complexions, began to intermarry with the Moors, producing the darker skinned Spanish people we see today. Among the Spanish aristocracy, however, many didn't associate with the Moors. Instead they secluded themselves in the mountains of Castile, deliberately avoiding the sun in order to set themselves apart from the foreign invaders. As a result, these aristocrats had such pale skin that their veins were visible. And, since veins seem to carry blue blood when they're seen though skin, these aristocrats were called "bluebloods." http://www.st-andrews-scots.org/mainhall/mharticle6.html Giving the Finger Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew"). Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!" Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird". ~Hanan :) -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
