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Hey does anybody know where the saying "Rule of Thumb" came from?

I know the answer, I just want some other people's input on it.

9 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Yes back in the day one of the laws were you couldn't hit your wife with any thing bigger or wider then your thumb! it's pretty messed up cause there's alot of things that could hurt a woman that are smaller then the thumb......using weapons are wrong to use unless both parties have one..lol

  • 1 decade ago

    Around the 1800's until the turn of the century and in some states ( or local areas ) in the U.S., the rule of thumb meant that husbands were allowed to whip there wifes with a stick no bigger than the base of the husbands thumb, I've heard it was on the law books in many places in Lousiana until the 1990's

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    That is a topic of some debate.

    One theory is an old English law about the size of a stick as the others have stated above.

    Another is woodworkers were so skilled at their trade that they could accurately measure using their thumb.

    I've never found an absolute definitive answer.

  • shoaf
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    it extremely is between the *Many* reasons i do no longer do photos of myself on line greater often than no longer, or on Yahoo! solutions in specific. i'm homely in authentic existence--no longer precisely appealing. So if this have been to take place with me, it only does no longer be solid. If it have been some cute female doing it, she'd only circulate "eww, i won't be able to have self assurance you're that Bradley P guy or woman", and if it have been some random hobo (the lots greater possibly effect), i might get some random paranoid rantings to the effect of "what-n-the-hell, you're no longer a scientist !!" (unhappy area is, I nevertheless have the Yahoo! solutions stickers and keychain floating around here someplace...the ballcap in no way did in large condition on my head, yet i might desire to nevertheless flaunt my being a Member here--If i myself wanted to be that lame, techniques you) yet yeah. for this reason you do no longer see my photos. extremely. i'm getting sufficient crap in authentic existence, over my visual attraction, thank you....

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    In medieval times, I believe, the law was, that a man could not hit his wife with an instrument bigger than his thumb.

  • 1 decade ago

    i think some bloke named tom made it up,or his wife thumbellina.or another common theory is that it came from ye olde England and was a law about not hitting your anchor(wife)with nothing bigger than the width or diameter of a thumb.

  • 1 decade ago

    England you could not hit your wife with a stick larger in diameter than your thumb

  • 1 decade ago

    Wikipedia has a long explanation. You can check it out here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb#Origin_...

  • oldguy
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago
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