Claim Verification: "The phrase "rule of thumb" originated from an old English law that allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb." — Disproved

Automated fact-verification of the claim: "The phrase "rule of thumb" originated from an old English law that allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb." Verdict: DISPROVED Key Findings No such English law ever existed. Four independent sources confirm that no English common law permitted wife-beating with a thumb-width stick (B1, B2, B3, B4). The phrase predates the false association by ~300 years. "Rule of thumb" first appeared in print in 1658/1685, while the wife-beating connection was first made in 1976 (B2). The Sir Francis Buller "Judge Thumb" story is unsubstantiated. There is no record that the 18th-century judge ever made the ruling attributed to him (B3, B4). All 4 citations were fully verified against their live source pages. Files proof.py — Re-runnable Python verification script proof.md — Structured proof report proof_audit.md — Full verification audit trail proof_narrative.md — Plain-language summary proof.json — Machine-readable structured data Generated by Proof Engine v0.10.0.