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Things that went over your head...

Started by ming, 09 January, 2012, 11:00:01 AM

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Proudhuff

I thought the Rule of thumb was about the size of stick that could be used for a beating or servants... no thicker than your thumb.
DDT did a job on me

shaolin_monkey

Quote from: Proudhuff on 02 October, 2019, 10:31:35 AM
I thought the Rule of thumb was about the size of stick that could be used for a beating or servants... no thicker than your thumb.

"The 'rule of thumb' 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 and in 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!""


https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/rule-of-thumb.html


sheridan

Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 02 October, 2019, 10:37:48 AM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 02 October, 2019, 10:31:35 AM
I thought the Rule of thumb was about the size of stick that could be used for a beating or servants... no thicker than your thumb.

"The 'rule of thumb' 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 and in 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!""

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/rule-of-thumb.html

And then after that bit it continues:
Quotethe 'rule of thumb' has never been the law in England.

Even if people mistakenly supposed the law to exist, there's no reason to believe that anyone ever called it the 'rule of thumb'. Despite the phrase being in common use since the 17th century and appearing many thousands of times in print, there are no printed records that associate it with domestic violence until the 1970s, when the notion was castigated by feminists.

sheridan

The oldest attribution refers to measuring something with a thumb instead of a ruler (as has been pointed out up-thread).
Quote"many profest Christians are like to foolish builders, who build by guess, and by rule of thumb, (as we use to speak) and not by Square and Rule."

shaolin_monkey

Fair enough!

That'll teach me to thoroughly read my own sources.   :D

Proudhuff

Quote from: sheridan on 02 October, 2019, 11:04:34 AM
The oldest attribution refers to measuring something with a thumb instead of a ruler (as has been pointed out up-thread).
Quote"many profest Christians are like to foolish builders, who build by guess, and by rule of thumb, (as we use to speak) and not by Square and Rule."

oh, where's that quote from sheridan?
DDT did a job on me


ming

Nasty vicious bitey-bitey things...

Klegg = Clegg (or, in Norwegian, Klegg).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse-fly

TordelBack

As a kid I heard the feckers called clegs in Ireland too- this would have been in Clare, I think. Also creabhars, in Meath. I just call them shitfuckinbastards.

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: TordelBack on 10 October, 2019, 02:54:41 PM
Also creabhars, in Meath. I just call them shitfuckinbastards.

I never heard that one in Meath, and I was born and bred in the kip.  The second one is more familiar, especially as a houseboat dweller (or aquaknacker, as the locals call us).
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

TordelBack

#1240
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 10 October, 2019, 03:57:29 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 10 October, 2019, 02:54:41 PM
Also creabhars, in Meath. I just call them shitfuckinbastards.

I never heard that one in Meath, and I was born and bred in the kip.  The second one is more familiar, especially as a houseboat dweller (or aquaknacker, as the locals call us).

I heard it used in Nobber - which is a place, nay a world, unto itself! - and also Ratoath.  I'm only guessing at the spelling, cos I've a vague feeling it's just horsefly as gaeilge, but alas my Irish education ran more towards rote-learning prepared statements on dífhostaíocht and ríomhairí.  It was pronounced "Crowhers".

Funt Solo

They were called clegs in the Highlands, as well: it says from Old Norse kleggi on the interweb. Feckin' horseflies.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

CalHab

Quote from: Funt Solo on 11 October, 2019, 04:16:47 AM
They were called clegs in the Highlands, as well: it says from Old Norse kleggi on the interweb. Feckin' horseflies.

Yup, always heard them called clegs in Scotland.

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: TordelBack on 10 October, 2019, 04:11:32 PM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 10 October, 2019, 03:57:29 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 10 October, 2019, 02:54:41 PM
Also creabhars, in Meath. I just call them shitfuckinbastards.

I never heard that one in Meath, and I was born and bred in the kip.  The second one is more familiar, especially as a houseboat dweller (or aquaknacker, as the locals call us).

I heard it used in Nobber - which is a place, nay a world, unto itself! - and also Ratoath.  I'm only guessing at the spelling, cos I've a vague feeling it's just horsefly as gaeilge, but alas my Irish education ran more towards rote-learning prepared statements on dífhostaíocht and ríomhairí.  It was pronounced "Crowhers".

Nobber! They eat their young out there.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

sheridan

Quote from: TordelBack on 10 October, 2019, 04:11:32 PM
I heard it used in Nobber - which is a place, nay a world, unto itself!


I'd never heard of it, but see that Nobber is just South of the border.  No opportunity for double entendres there.  And I'm sure it's never been said that the Archdeacon of Nobber is a euphemism.