1)Actually began back in medieval times. French warriors would cut off the middle finger of British archers since this was the finger used to pull the string back on the bow. Archers who replaced them would stick their middle fingers up mocking the French showing them they got their finger and they're gonna launch an arrow through your head.

2)In present day, a gesture meaning fuck you, also an easy way to end a conversation

flip the bird or middle salute looks like this

........................./´¯/)
......................,/¯..//
...................../..../ /
............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\
........('(...´(..´......,~/'...')
.........\.................\/..../
..........''...\.......... _.·´
............\..............(
..............\.............\

(yes i made that) and it means to FUCK OFF and such (for more of these IM me at FUN8927 or Emailme same thing wth @aol.com)

The only thing in your life that'll stick up for you.

Basically means, fuck off, I dont give a damn

A finger that's typically used to tell people to go to hell and/or to fuck themselves by being positioned upright while the other fingers are facing down inside the palm of the hand.

international understanding of 'fuck you'

............../´¯/)
............./¯..//
............/....//
....../´¯/'...'/´¯¯')¸
.../'/.../..../......./¨¯\
.('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
..\.................'....../
...'\................ _.·´
.....\...............(
......\...............\
thats what one looks like on a computer