Editing V sign (section)

===Origins===
A commonly repeated legend claims that the two-fingered salute or V sign derives from a gesture made by [[Welsh longbow|longbowmen]] fighting in the English army at the [[Battle of Agincourt]] (1415) during the [[Hundred Years' War]], but no written historical [[primary source]]s support this contention.<ref>David Wilton, ''Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends'', Oxford University Press, 2008, {{ISBN|978-0-19-537557-2}}.</ref> This origin legend states that English archers believed that those who were captured by the French had their [[Index finger|index]] and [[middle finger]]s cut off so that they could no longer operate their longbows, and that the V sign was used by uncaptured and victorious archers in a display of defiance against the French. In conflict with this origin myth, the chronicler [[Jean de Wavrin]], contemporary of the battle, reported that Henry V mentioned in a pre-battle speech that the French were said to be threatening to cut off ''three'' fingers (not two) from captured bowmen.<ref name=BSH>{{Cite web|url=https://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2007/07/02/two-fingers-up-to-english-history/|title=Two fingers up to English history…|date=2 July 2007|website=The BS Historian|access-date=21 May 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k50254g|title=A collection of the chronicles and ancient histories of Great Britain, now called England. 2. From A.D. 1399 to A.D. 1422 / by John de Wavrin, lord of Forestel; transl. by William Hardy,... and Edward L. C. P. Hardy,...|last=Wavrin|first=Jean de |publisher=Longman|location=London|pages=203|language=en}}</ref> Neither Wavrin nor any contemporary author reported the threat was ever carried out after that nor other battles, nor did they report anything concerning a gesture of defiance.<ref name=BSH/>

<!-- Needs a reference (rather than a wikipedia page) with some expert suggesting that these are intentional hand signs. If confirmed, it needs to go in the victory sign section anyway
[[File:Religion saved by Spain.jpg|thumb|Religion saved by Spain, by [[Titian]]]]
Another early appearance of the sign is in [[Titian]]'s painting [[Religion saved by Spain]] commemorating the [[Battle of Lepanto]] created between 1572 and 1575. This is an allegoric painting, portraying Spain as a woman in a dramatic landscape, with a shield in her right hand and a spear with the flag of Victory in her left hand. Both her hands show symbolic V ("victoria") gesture.-->
The first unambiguous, attested evidence of the use of the insulting V sign in the United Kingdom dates to 1901, when a worker outside Parkgate Ironworks in [[Rotherham]] used the gesture (captured on the film) to indicate that he did not like being filmed.<ref name=icons>Staff. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081018230141/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-v-sign/biography/v-for-get-stuffed The V sign], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070623145709/http://www.icons.org.uk/about-us www.icons.org.uk web.archive.org]</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/I64ewblmTUY Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20140123231202/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I64ewblmTUY Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|title=Parkgate Iron and Steel Co., Rotherham (1901)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I64ewblmTUY&t=58s|website=YouTube| date=10 July 2008 |publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=13 November 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[Peter Opie]] interviewed children in the 1950s and observed in ''The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren'' (1959) that the much-older thumbing of the nose ([[cocking a snook]]) had been replaced by the V sign as the most common insulting gesture used in the playground.<ref name= icons/>

Between 1975 and 1977, a group of anthropologists including [[Desmond Morris]] studied the history and spread of European gestures and found the rude version of the V-sign to be basically unknown outside the [[British Isles]]. In his ''Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution'', published in 1979, Morris discussed various possible origins of this sign but came to no definite conclusion:

{{blockquote|Because of the strong taboo associated with the gesture (its public use has often been heavily penalised). As a result, there is a tendency to shy away from discussing it in detail. It is "known to be dirty" and is passed on from generation to generation by people who simply accept it as a recognised obscenity without bothering to analyse it... Several of the rival claims are equally appealing. The truth is that we will probably never know...<ref name=icons/>}}