On Oct 11, 2018, at 8:53 AM, John Weller <[email protected]> wrote: > > Just to throw some unconnected trivia into the debate I learnt a few days ago > that 'Rule of thumb' refers to a miller checking the setting of the > grindstones by rubbing the ground grain between thumb and forefinger. > Thought you might like to know that 😊
I had always heard a very different origin for that. From wikipedia: "An 1824 court ruling in Mississippi stated that a man was entitled to enforce "domestic discipline" by striking his wife with a whip or stick no wider than the judge's thumb. In a later case in North Carolina (State v. Rhodes, 1868), the defendant was found to have struck his wife "with a switch about the size of this fingers"; the judge found the man not guilty due to the switch being smaller than a thumb.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb -- Ed Leafe _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
