Flipping someone off in WWII Britain.

[window_of_time]

I am working on a story set in WWII Britain, specifically involving the RAF. There is one character who flips off another. I have already done research into the proper offense gesture, but I have been unable to find whether the verb "to flip off" was in use at this time

Comments

[felix_felicia]

I mean... it's easy enough just to say "he made a rude hand gesture" and not have to worry about timing at all. Unless you want to have them discuss it, although I'm sure you could still get around that. I believe that "flip off" is mostly an American thing though (and does it even apply to the two-fingered salute? Or would they have been gesturing with a middle finger in the 1940s?)

[likeadeuce]

Does 'gave the two-fingered salute' convey basically the same idiom?

[felix_felicia]

Well, yes, though I don't know how early that phrase might have been used. And it sounds more natural (to me, anyway) when used with an indefinite article - i.e. "he gave him a two-fingered salute" rather than "he gave the two-fingered salute".

[steepholm]

I don't think anyone used the middle finger in Britain at that date. (It still feels distinctively American to me, aged 49.) Gave the V sign, or gave two fingers, would both be better.

[thekumquat]

Indeed - I remember at school in 1990 when it became cool to use the middle finger as an insult, but always with a comment of 'sit and swivel' - no-one would have understood it alone. I'm 37. It was a few years later I started seeing one-fingered salutes alone.