Rule of Thumb myth

            Rule of thumb: Don’t believe folk etymologies

                                       by

                               Howard Richler

I’d  been getting together weekly with a group of friends for around a year where we indulge in some banter whist scoffing croissants and imbibing varieties of java. We originally called these meetings “The Summit” but  after several months of not coming close to solving any world problems and owing up to the mundane nature of our discussions we  re-dubbed it “the swamp.” In any case, one time during one of our rare erudite sessions, we must have discussed some language issue, because a lady came over to our table and said she was listening to our language bavardage and asked whether we knew that the origin of the expression “rule of thumb” came about to dictate the legal length of an object a man could use in order to beat his wife.  Alas, I had to disabuse of as to the veracity of this explanation.

Mind you, this myth is oft repeated. Take the following explanation found in Women: A Feminist Perspective, edited by Jo Freeman: "The popular expression 'rule of thumb' originated from English common law, which allowed a husband to beat his wife with a whip or stick no bigger in diameter than his thumb. The husband's prerogative was incorporated into American law. Several states had statutes that essentially allowed a man to beat his wife without interference from the courts."

In the 1980s, Time magazine wrote, “The colloquial phrase ‘rule of thumb’ is supposedly derived from the ancient right of a husband to discipline his wife with a rod ‘no thicker than his thumb,’ ” and in 1989 Washington Post added, “A husband's right to beat his wife is included in the 1768 codification of the common law. Husbands had the right to ‘physically chastise’ an errant wife so long as the stick was no bigger than their thumb - the so-called ‘rule of thumb’”.

Actually, nobody has been able to find a single English or American law that ordains this conjugal thumb right to a husband.  It has been claimed that in 1782 British judge Sir Francis Buller proclaimed that a husband may beat his wife with a stick not thicker than his thumb but nobody has been able to discover documentation of such. On the contrary, 18^th century British and American law  prohibit wife beating (though often this provision was only casually enforced.)

That the phrase did not originate in legal practice is verified by the “rule of thumb” entry  in the OED: “A method or procedure derived entirely from practice or experience, without any basis in scientific knowledge; a roughly practical method. Also, a particular stated rule that is based on practice or experience.” The first citation is from 1658: “Many profest Christians are like foolish builders who build by guess and by rule of thumb.”

 The expression probably comes from the world of wood-working where ancient practitioners would rarely use rulers but would measure things by the length of their thumbs. It’s most likely that the saying comes from the length of the first joint of the thumb, which measures approximately one inch. An alternate theory, posited by other etymologists, credits the origin with brewmasters who often tested the temperature of the beer (before the invention of the thermometer by dipping a thumb in the brew. This seems unlikely to me as the thumb is not that sensitive and the fermentation range between too warm and too cool is not appreciable.  

In a subsequent column, I’ll look at some other folk etymologies.

Richler’s latest book is Wordplay: Arranged and Deranged Wit

Simcha Torah

                          A Secular Celebration of the Torah

                                                   by

                                       Howard Richler

At sundown on October 21^{st ,} observant Jews will celebrate Simchat Torah, “rejoicing in the Torah,” as this  marks the end of the annual cycle of reading the Torah and hence the time to start anew. During this holiday, the last section of Deuteronomy and the first section of Genesis are read in succession after a festival parade of the Torah scrolls embellished with singing and dancing. For secular Jews such as myself, or non-Jews, who feel left out of this celebration, we can take solace that as English speakers we're able to rejoice in the many words and phrases that the  five books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) have contributed to the English vernacular. 

     Mostly, these words and expressions found their way into English through translations of the Torah, such as the King James Bible (KJB).

          Take the word “jubilee.” While a jubilee might be an occasion for an English queen to be jubilant, as in the 2012 “Queen's Diamond Jubilee,” celebrating the 60^th anniversary of Elizabeth II ascension, the word bears no etymological ode to joy. The first definition of this word in the OED is “A year of emancipation and restoration, which according to Leviticus 25 was to be kept every 50 years, and … proclaimed by the blast of trumpets.. ; during it the fields were … left uncultivated, Hebrew slaves were …set free, and lands and houses in the open country.. that had been sold were to revert to their former owners or their heirs.” This august year takes its name from the Hebrew word yobhel, “ram’s horn,” which was used to proclaim the advent of this event. The word “jubilee” is first used in John Wycliffe’s 1382 translation of the Bible: “Thow shalt halowe the fyftith yeer.. he is forsothe the iubilee.” Chaucer was the first person to use the word without its religious context and by the late 16^th century its secular sense became the dominant meaning.

         “Scapegoat” is another word first found in Leviticus and once again its progenitor is Wycliffe who renders Leviticus 16 as “And Aaron cast lottes ouer the.. gootes: one lotte for the Lorde, and another for a scapegoote.”  Most people think of a scapegoat as an innocent person or group that bears the blame for others and suffers a punishment in their stead. However, in the biblical ritual of the Day of Atonement  a scapegoat referred to one of two goats that was sent alive into the wilderness. The sins of the people had been symbolically laid upon this “escaped” goat, while the other goat was sacrificed to God. So, I suppose, in the original sense, being a scapegoat was better for your well-being than the alternative.

          Also, our vocabulary has been enriched by several colourful expressions found in the five Books of Moses. These include: “brother's keeper,” (Genesis 4:9), “land of milk and honey”(Exodus 3:8), “an eye for an eye” (Exodus 21:23-27),  and “fat of the land” (Genesis 45:18)

          Actually, there are several words and phrases thought to have a biblical provenance that, in fact, do not. Such is the case of “helpmate.” We read in Genesis 2:18, in the KJB, “God, having created man, observed, 'It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him an help meet for him' ”, i.e, a “suitable help.” Hearing “help meet” pronounced,  by the end of the 17^th century churchgoers rendered the term as help-meet and by the 18^th century this hyphenated term transmogrified into “helpmate.” Another Genesis term whose meaning has been misconstrued  is “mark of Cain.” We think of this phrase to signify a murderer just as the letter A denoted an adulterer in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. However, when God puts a “mark upon Cain” it is placed so that Cain will be labelled so that others would know not be punish him further.

          One of the best-known supposedly biblical expressions is “forbidden fruit,” but in Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 Adam and Eve are only instructed not to partake of the fruit of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”  According to the OED, “forbidden fruit” is first used in Edward Stillingfleet's 1662 Origines Sacræ: “He required from him the observance..of not eating..the forbidden fruit.” Also, surprisingly, not found in Scripture is the expression “promised land” as this phrase was first used in Thomas Norton's  translation of  Calvin's Instutio Christianae  Religionis written in 1561.

          N.B. This article is aimed for all readers; those who “walk with God” (Deuteronomy 10:12) or those who worship  “the golden calf” (Exodus 32:4)

hrichler@gmail.com

Howard's  latest book is Wordplay:  Arranged & DerangedWit.