Date:  Sat, 27 Dec 1997 10:52:56 -0500
From:  Jesse T Sheidlower <jester[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PANIX.COM>
Subject: movie non-anachronism

In Frank Rich's Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times,
he discusses the movie The Titanic, beginning with whether
people actually gave each other the finger in 1912, which
he thinks is a grave anachronism (a "deviation from historical
verisimilitude," in his words). In fact, that gesture was
certainly in use in 1912; not only was the expression "the
finger" current (though only in the figurative sense 'harsh
treatment, etc'; the use of "the finger" referring to the
finger gesture itself is not attested until later, though
this is unquestionable due to a gap in the evidence; see
HDAS), but there are nineteenth-century American photographs
of people giving the finger.

A correspondent also asked me recently if "shut up!," which
also occurs in The Titanic, was an anachronism; it is not,
of course.