Random memory: _rule_ "ruler"

Fri Jul 5 06:22:12 UTC 2013

> rule

The clear answer, then, is that I've over-compensated. Or not. I've heard
only "ruler" from since I-don't-know-when. "In *my* dialect," to coin a
phrase, a "straightedge" is a particular kind of metal ruler used for
more-rxacting measurements than are possible with the ordinary,
grade-school-quality tool.

On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 8:27 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Random memory: _rule_ "ruler"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> <html>
> <body>
> <font size=3>For those of us who were taught more formally than to use a
> "straightedge", it was "compass and rule".  (A
> few quotations associating the two in the OED -- although admittedly from
> the long 18th-century.   No, that's not when I learned
> geometry.  And for constructions Euclid did not allow the rule to be
> ruled.)<br><br>
> Joel<br><br>
> At 7/3/2013 08:07 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:<br>
> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">On Jul 3, 2013, at 3:32 PM,
> Wilson Gray wrote:<br><br>
> > When I was in grade school, we called the ordinary foot-rulets that
> we used<br>
> > "rules." This was (is? also the usual BE word.<br><br>
> Not familiar with this usage myself, but of course those of us (even
> Northerners) of a certain age grew up using slide rules, which were never
> slide rulers.<br><br>
> LH<br><br>
> > The trivial amount of<br>
> > interest lies in the fact that these rulers were Coca-Cola gimmes.
> On the<br>
> > back of each ruler was the "Coca-Cola" logo and the
> words:<br>
> ><br>
> > A GOOD RULE<br>
> > Do unto others as ye would have them do unto you<br>
> ><br>
> > My impression is that this was meant as a pun - both the tool and
> the adage<br>
> > are "good rules" - and, given that Co-Cola is a Southern
> company, perhaps<br>
> > this "rule" instead of "ruler" was (is?) a
> Southern regional use and not<br>
> > just a black thing. This use of "rule" for
> "ruler" isn't in DARE. But,<br>
> ><br>
> > Youneverknow.<br>
> ><br>
> > --<br>
> > -Wilson<br>
> > -----<br>
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange
> complaint to<br>
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.<br>
> > -Mark Twain<br>
> ><br>
> > ------------------------------------------------------------<br>
> > The American Dialect Society -
> <a href="http://www.americandialect.org/" eudora="autourl">
> http://www.americandialect.org</a><br><br>
> ------------------------------------------------------------<br>
> The American Dialect Society -
> <a href="http://www.americandialect.org/" eudora="autourl">
> http://www.americandialect.org</a></font></blockquote></body>
> </html>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org