Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
We’ve had a discussion about “thump one’s nose,” and “thumps up” is in the database. I notice that Google estimates there are about 2500 examples of “rule of thump” on the web. I scanned through a large number of these and they are not puns. Hundreds of people think that “rule of thump” is the real idiom.
But is it an eggcorn? Nothing occurs to me (late at night here and I’m tired) that would license the substitution of “thump” for “thumb” in this idiom. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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How about thumping watermelons, and choosing the one that feels/sounds best by rule of thump?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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kem, I wonder whether any of those using the ‘thump’ variant do so under the influence of the urban myth about the origin of the term coming from the thickness of the stick a man was allowed to beat, or thump perhaps, his wife with? See www.debunker.com/texts/ruleofthumb.html
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Wow I always thought that urban legend was true, especially since my parents admonished me as a kid not to use that phrase due to its inherent misogynism. Well I feel better now! Still, it’s too bad that that clarification had to come from a source with a pretty questionable agenda.
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Both suggestions-thumping watermelons and thumping spouses-seem plausible as an explanation for “rule of thump.” After a little sleep I thought about “Thumper’s rule” from Bambi: “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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May not be a thumping good explanation, but maybe that meaning of thumping (i.e. overwhelming, contundente as we’d say in Spanish) has some influence here? Rule of thump = take the one that delivers a stronger blow?
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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