３年前に "Rule of thumb" （http://blog.alc.co.jp/blog/3302827/archive/2007/06/10）の由来について書きましたが、Reader's Digest6月号にThe Perfect Brewと題したビールについての特集があり、その中に以前紹介した説とは異なる由来が書かれていました。
Rule of thumb: Many believe that the phrase evolved in the world of beer when brew masters, in the absence of a thermometer, used their digits to test the temperature of the ale.
確かに以前に紹介した説は "An old English law banned husbands from beating their wives with anything thicker than a thumb." で意外だったのですが、今回の説に軍配を揚げる前に少し調べてみました。
World Wide Wordsは両説に触れていてRD説は "This seems unlikely, as the thumb is not that sensitive and the range of temperatures for fermentation between too cool and too warm is quite small." とし、またEnglish law説は却下しています。 WWWの解説は長いので結論の個所だけを以下に抜粋します。
There was an old tailors’ axiom that “twice around the thumb is once around the wrist”, which turns up in Gulliver’s Travels. It’s most likely that the saying comes from the length of the first joint of the thumb, which is about an inch (I remember once seeing a carpenter actually make a rough measurement this way). So the phrase rule of thumb uses the word rule in the sense of ruler, not regulation, and directly refers to this method of measurement.
ＷＷＷ説に私は納得です。
Rule of thumb: Many believe that the phrase evolved in the world of beer when brew masters, in the absence of a thermometer, used their digits to test the temperature of the ale.
確かに以前に紹介した説は "An old English law banned husbands from beating their wives with anything thicker than a thumb." で意外だったのですが、今回の説に軍配を揚げる前に少し調べてみました。
World Wide Wordsは両説に触れていてRD説は "This seems unlikely, as the thumb is not that sensitive and the range of temperatures for fermentation between too cool and too warm is quite small." とし、またEnglish law説は却下しています。 WWWの解説は長いので結論の個所だけを以下に抜粋します。
There was an old tailors’ axiom that “twice around the thumb is once around the wrist”, which turns up in Gulliver’s Travels. It’s most likely that the saying comes from the length of the first joint of the thumb, which is about an inch (I remember once seeing a carpenter actually make a rough measurement this way). So the phrase rule of thumb uses the word rule in the sense of ruler, not regulation, and directly refers to this method of measurement.
ＷＷＷ説に私は納得です。
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