Quote:
Originally Posted by mkl
You were lied to. That isn't the origin of "rule of thumb". There has never been anything in english common law saying that. It is however, a common misconception that this is where that saying came from. It is thought that rule of thumb just refers to the practice of estimating distance using something common to measure with, a thumb.
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I wasn't lied to. I have seen the law that includes this in New Zealand. It was only removed from NZ law books in the 1980s. It doesn't specifically mention thumbs, but this is what the section of the Act was called in common parlance.