noun a gesture that is used to insult or otherwise cause offence, especially when made in conjunction with threatening or abusive language, e.g. 'fuck off!' or 'up yours!' with which the sign may be considered synonymous. The forefinger and the middle finger are extended to form a V shape, the palm turned in towards the gesturer; as an obscene gesture it is confined almost entirely to the UK. There is a legend that French archers, when captured by the British at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), had their middle and forefingers – those necessary to draw the bowstring – chopped off. The Welsh bowmen are said to have waggled their two fingers, taunting the French. The earliest written description of a v-sign as both threat and insult is French: '[Pangurge] stretched out the forefinger, and middle finger or medical of his right hand, holding them asunder as much as he could, and thrusting them towards Thaumast' (François Rabelais, 1532). Further derivations abound:1. Farmer and Henley's Slang and its Analogues (1890) suggests a representation of cuckold's horns, however this is traditionally made with the first and fourth fingers.2. Symbolic of the phallus; the raised middle finger (FLIP THE BIRD) has been known since Roman times and, it is suggested, the v-sign enlarges the penis or doubles the quotient; or disguises the single finger insult.3. The fingers represent themselves inserted in the vagina – though why this should be insulting is not explained.4. Symbolic of female legs or labia spread wide; or represents the triangular shape of female pubic hair.5. A corrupted victory sign – however the Churchillian symbol is first recorded in 1941, contrived by a Belgian Lawyer named Victor De Lavelaye. Probably more than one of the above, except 5, is the truth UK, 1948