Showing posts with label Words and Phrases. Show all posts

"Rule of Thumb" Origin

What I love most about American idiomatic phrases – other than repeating them, of course – is to learn their respective origins. We all use idiomatic phrases, or metaphors, to explain this reality by relating it to an alternate one. Even if we say them, however, and understand their correct usage, it still surprising to learn where those phrases originated from and what they originally meant.

I have been using "rule of thumb" to apply a commonly used rule or practice to a specific incident, using this approximate knowledge to make a decision.

(Bad) Example: I am not hungry as of yet, but according to rule of thumb I will be requiring three meals and a bottle or two of wine by the end of today.

Awhile back, someone (somewhere) quickly explained to me the phrase's origin. The "rule of thumb" referred to an old British law which gave husbands the permission to beat his wife with a stick no longer than the width of a thumb.

Could this be true? Could my innocent little idiomatic phrase be offending feminists? I did some digging.