Englishrule of thumb
Meaning: A rough guide; an unwritten or customary rule based on experience or practice.
Example: “As a rule of thumb, add one tablespoon of salt per pot of pasta.”
Origin: A persistent modern myth claims the phrase comes from an old English law permitting a husband to beat his wife with a rod no wider than his thumb — but no such statute has ever been found, and the connection to domestic violence traces only to a 1976 report by feminist activist Del Martin, not to any historical legal source. The real, far duller origin: the Oxford English Dictionary traces "rule of thumb" to the thumb's long informal use as a rough unit of measurement, standing in for any practical, experience-based method used in place of precise calculation. The phrase itself is first recorded in the mid-1600s, in a sermon by the Scottish preacher James Durham, already carrying that plain, non-violent sense.
More English idioms
- stick one's neck out To take a risk.
- stick one's nose in To try to find out about someone else's private business.
- stick out like a sore thumb Not to blend in; to be obvious and prominent or easily seen.
- sweat blood To put out a great deal of effort; to work very, very hard.
- sweep someone off their feet To overwhelm someone, often causing him or her to fall in love.
- talk someone's ear off To bore someone with one's unending talk.
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