Do you know where the saying "rule of thumb" comes from?

Here's your proof....

STATE v. A. B. RHODES.

SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA, RALEIGH

61 N.C. 453; 1868 N.C. LEXIS 38; 1 Phil. Law 453

January, 1868, Decided

""We find that the defendant struck Elizabeth Rhodes, his wife, three licks, with a switch about the size of one of his fingers (but not as large as a man's thumb), without any provocation except some words uttered by her and not recollected by the witness."

His Honor was of opinion that the defendant had a right to whip his wife with a switch no larger than his thumb, and that upon the facts found in the special verdict he was not guilty in law. Judgment in favor of the defendant was accordingly entered and the State appealed."

The myth is that this terminology was nothing but a term of measurement entirely unrelated to domestic violence.

I understand that this is a myth. There appears to be no reliable provenance for any such ruling. I believe the real origin of 'rule of thumb' is to do with measurements, and has nothing to do with wife-beating.

However, it was assumed in past times that a man did have a right to chastise his subordinates, including wife, children, servants and apprentices. How common it was for men to beat their wives we don't really know, but certainly a man who used excessive violence against his wife (i.e. 'beating' her in an abusive fashion) could be subject to strong disapproval fromt he community. The practice of 'rough music' (gathering outside an offenders' house to make noise and riot and shame him) was quite common in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A man who witnessed one such episode of 'rough music' in the early 19th century, describes the scene thus:

'As soon as it was dark a procession was formed. First came two men with huge cow horns, then another with a large old fish-kettle around his neck, then came the orator of the party and then a motely assembly of hand-bells, gongs, cow horns, whistles, tin kettles, rattles, bones, frying pans, everything in short from which more and rougher noises than ordinary could be extracted. At a given signal they halted, and the orator began to recite a lot of doggerel verse, of which I can rfemember at the beginning:

"There is a man in this place

Has beat his wife!

Has beat his wife!

It is a very great shame and disgrace

To all who in this place

It is indeed upon my life!"

After some score or more lines of verse, another signal was given and the orchestra burst out "in transport and rude harmony" aided by the howling and hooting of those breath was not otherwise engaged giving wind to the horns and whistles. A bonfire was then lighted, round which the whole party danced as if they were crazy. I was told the noise was heard two miles off. After keeping this up for near half an hour, silence was proclaimed, and the orator advancing hoped he should not be obliged to come again, and recommended better conduct for the future. This rough music was secretly encouraged by the neighbours, who clubbed for beer for the band, and it was believed to have the best moral effect on all parties. '

A rule of thumb is a practice or procedure that is developed from experience and common sense and has nothing to do with scientific or technical knowledge. It was first used in English around 1692. The expression alludes to making rough estimates of measurements by using one's thumb, the distance to the first knuckle usually being about one inch. The plural form is rules of thumb. There is a story about this phrase's origin involving wife-beating that is quite implausible and not worth going into. Suffice it to say that it is a bit of modern folklore. The real explanation of rule of thumb is that it derives from workers who knew their trade so well that they rarely or never fell back on the use of such things as rulers. Instead they would measure things by, for example, the length of their thumb; they measured, not by a rule(r) of wood, but by rule of thumb. The term was already in metaphorical use by the late 17th century.

...And for the love of God...the urban legend has nothing to do with feminism!!!

tremendous delegates ought to help a candidate depending on the universal vote and variety of states received. Obama will win and there is not some thing she will do. ought to the tremendous Delegates throw it, there'll be a backlash the likes this u . s . a . hasn't considered on your time. i imagine there might want to be riots even. the truly way Hillary can win is via dishonest.

You're wrong, it is an urban myth. People simply believed that a judge had upheld such a decision and carried on regardless, using it as a justification.

It's thought that a Welsh judge might have mentioned it as his personal opinion, but there is no law on the statute books and never has been.

It really makes no difference. It has taken on a general meaning as just the basic rule, so I don't think anything about beating women when I use the phrase. I mean, yeah, it's terrible that there ever was a rule like that... but it doesn't mean anything to me in these times.

The rule of thumb is common throughout British history, but the idea of it being aplied to the dimensions of a stick is a popular feminist myth created by FEMINIST Del Martin in 1976.

Sorry CC, the populist use of the term does derive from this feminist belief.

There is a discredited claim that Justice Sir Francis Buller applied this law in his career (18th century), he never did, let alone used that term for it. References to it in law have all been to discredit and deny it's validity.

There were rules, called rules of thumb for:

-Eponential growth rates in finance (Rule 72)

-There was a builder's rule for rough measurements. This most probably the true origin.

-A Tailor's rule where the circumference of the thumb could be used to determine wrist, neck and waist measurements. These are surprisingly accurate physicalk ratios

-Training standards: often called a rule of thumb for capability, used in the US, UK, Australia and other places, especially for hazardous materials, but not exclusively.

-Ettiquette, for formal place settings.

- Beer brewing, to check wort temperature.

I've heard this in countless history classes. For the sake of argument, I'm going to agree that it's true.

Doesn't change anything for me...I know that a lot of our common phrases have a lot of history behind them.

Margaret S - there may be an older part to that story though - the width of the thumb was used to measure one inch, so it may be that the stick was meant to be no more than one inch wide :-)

Watch the movie Boondock Saints, they explain it there, theres a neat scene on it