Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
You are not logged in.
Registrations are currently closed because of a technical problem. Please send email to
The forum administrator reserves the right to request users to plausibly demonstrate that they are real people with an interest in the topic of eggcorns. Otherwise they may be removed with no further justification. Likewise, accounts that have not been used for posting may be removed.
Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
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.
Offline
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* .
Offline
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
Offline
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.
Offline
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.
Offline
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* .
Offline