Nightly "What is the origin of that phrase?"

[caledesi]

Ok folks, where did the expression "rule of thumb" come from?

All Googlers will be shot on sight.

Winner receives a free cyber tour of the Louvre.

[proud patriot]

1. Does it have something to do with not getting your thumb chopped off?

just guessing :shrug:

[onebigbadwulf]

2. it has to do with

Kings and their thumbs I think. I know that an inch was exactly the length of the king's thumb. Which may be that a rule of thumb originally meant how to measure an inch.

Just a guess

[Nailzberg]

3. I can't recall, but I know the beating your wife myth is BS

They dragged that legend out in "Boondock Saints".

To which the one brother saiys "Well, can't do much with that now can you? Perhaps it should have been the rule of wrist."

[caledesi]

6. Really Nailz? Because you were coming REALLY close to the origin.

[Nailzberg]

7. It is not from an English law allowing you to beat you wife

provided the item would beat her with is no more than the width of a thumb. I checked up on that when someone told me years ago. I don't recall what the real explanation was, but I know several sources debunked the wife beating thing.

[caledesi]

11. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

Congratulations Nailzberg.

The 1917 Law review article, "Right of Husband to Chastise Wife," 3 Virginia
Law Register 239 (1917), states the rule of thumb as the common law rule and cites as examples two NC cases:
State v. Oliver, 70 N.C.60 & State v. Rhodes, 61 N.C. 453.


A husband could not beat her with a switch wider than his thumb.

I didn't realize when I started doing this fun thing, that there could be a varying origins of expressions, so I will just try my best to acknowledge any of those where people want to argue w/ me. LOL!

[Nailzberg]

13. I accept no prize. I believe this definition to be incorrect.

It has merely been linked to spousal abuse over the years, but the phrase rule of thumb did not come from law. Etymologists agree that word "rule" in this phrase refers to measurement, not a law, as no laws actually allow for beating your wife with a tiny stick. The phrase has been in use since at least the 17th century, yet it was never partnered to spousal abuse until 1976.
As a matter of fact, in State v. Oliver the judge said in regards to the myth you could beat your wife, it was not a law in North Carolina.
In neither case did the actual phrase "rule of thumb" appear.
No rule of thumb has been found in British or American law.



I looked it up all over.



http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa030226a.htm
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-rul1.htm
http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/etymology/rule_of_thumb.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb



"In 1976, Del Martin, a coordinator of the NOW Task Force on Battered Women, came across a reference to the two judges and their remarks. Neither judge had used the phrase "rule of thumb," but a thumb had been mentioned, and Ms. Martin took note of it"

-Sommers, Christina Hoff, "Who Stole Feminism?" Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994

[Dogmudgeon]

4. 1 thumb = 1 inch

Actually, it's pretty close, so it was the original "Rule of Thumb". Since most pre-technological societies base their measurement systems on parts of the body, it is probably a well-established linguistic observation.

I suspect there are actually several sources to the phrase, and they merged into what we now have. If anyone knows of different origins, please post them!

--bkl

[phaseolus]

5. Something to do with beating your wife or kids

You couldn't use a stick larger than the diameter of your thumb...

...remembered from some other web discussion a couple years ago, *not* looked up on google

[rasputin1952]

8. I recall hearing that one as well...

but generally, I believe it had something to do with the measurement of the tip of the thumb to the first joint = 1 inch on the average. So, it became the standard for an inch. 12 inches = 1 foot, because 12 'thumb measurements' came out to the lenght of the average foot. Who the hell knows where yard, acre or furlong came from?

:shrug:

[Dogmudgeon]

9. Wife-beating sticks and thumbs

I wouldn't automatically doubt it, but every law I've seen quoted (OK, both of them) that deals with "disciplining" one's wife with a stick gave actual dimensions. I guess it's more lawyerly that way.

Books on antiquated and unusual laws might have a few references.

--bkl

[MojoKrunch]

10. Straight Dope Archive Search

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000512.html
"For more than 300 years "rule of thumb" has meant what most people think it means: any rough-and-ready method of estimating. It's believed to have originated with woodworkers, who made measurements with their thumbs."

Mojo

[caledesi]

12. You people are tough! You are NOT supposed to look anything up.

But since you did, I will give you honorable mention and a free cyber-kiss!

[zbdent]

14. Kinda low-tech resource, but:

"The Dictionary of Cliches" (copyright 1985 by James Rogers) has this:

Rule of Thumb: A rough measure or guide. The part of the thumb from the knuckle to the end is approximately one inch and has often served as a measure when a more precise one was not at hand. Probably the "rule" originated here. Sir William Hope told his readers in The Compleat Fencing-Master (1692): "What he doth, he doth by rule of Thumb, and not by art."

$.02 tossed in.