By By Anastasia Tsioutas

First, bend the knuckles and make a fist. Then, take that middle finger and give it a good stretch upwards. Look familiar?

The middle finger is a well-known gesture usually given out of anger and frustration. For most, the middle finger is often accompanied by a verbal insult.

Even though the meaning for this gesture is simple, approximately two words in length, the history dates back to Ancient Roman and Greek times.

“It is identified as the digitus impudicus (‘impudent finger’) in Ancient Roman writings,” Wikipedia.com, a free online encyclopedia, states.

According to Wikipedia.com the first use of the middle finger was during the Ancient Greek comedy The Clouds by Aristophanes. During the play, it was used as a gesture to insult someone.

One famous example of using this gesture in the United States occured in 1968 when crewmembers of the USS Pueblo were photographed giving the finger after being captured by the North Koreans.

Another instance was in 1994 during a Seinfeld episode. The gesture was shown on camera, but never explicitly. Instead, it appeared when a waitress was shown scratching her head with only her middle finger, and when it was the only finger that stuck out of a man’s hand splint.

The middle finger has a variety of names such as the one- finger salute, the highway salute, flipping (someone) off, flipping the bird, showing someone the middle finger and digital signalling.

So next time the need to flash someone the middle finger arises, remember that its simplicity makes up for its deep rooted ancient history.