"Rule of thumb" (1685)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007, Bonnie Taylor-Blake wrote:

> I haven't seen the entry for "rule of thumb" in the _Random House Unabridged
> Dictionary_ (2006), but I understand it may contain an estimate of 1685-1695
> for the origin of the phrase.  If so, is this based in part on Durham's
> work?  Or does this simply reflect speculation that "rule of thumb" existed
> for some time before 1692?

The datings in the Random House dictionaries are speculative.

Fred Shapiro


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