People repeat old sayings but don't wear they come from.?

Question

like........"Rule of Thumb" where's that come from and why do people say it

Answer 1

Both of these people are bullshitters.  Rule of thumb is a masogenistic rule from a couple hundred years ago.  It was developed stating that you could not hit your wife with anything thicker than your thumb or it was illegal.

Origin

This has been said to derive from the belief that English law allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick so long as it is was no thicker than his thumb. In 1782 Judge Sir Francis Buller is reported as having made this legal ruling. The following year James Gillray published a satirical cartoon attacking Buller and caricaturing him as 'Judge Thumb'. The cartoon shows a man beating a fleeing woman and Buller carrying two bundles of sticks. The caption reads "thumbsticks - for family correction: warranted lawful!

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/rule-...

Answer 2

A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination.The earliest citation comes from Sir William Hope’s The Compleat Fencing-Master, second edition, 1692, page 157: "What he doth, he doth by rule of thumb, and not by art."

The term is thought to originate with wood workers who used the length of their thumbs rather than rulers for measuring things, cementing its modern use as an inaccurate, but reliable and convenient standard.

Answer 3

I think that it refers to a thumb, being the size of an inch.