Picture a long flat stick whose length never changes. You do not use it by looking at it; you use it by laying it beside something else. The stick itself is not interesting — what it gives you is an answer about the other thing. That is the whole idea: a fixed length you hold up against whatever you want to judge.
可以想成一根長長扁扁、長度永遠不變的木尺。它的用法不是拿來看，而是拿來「靠上去」：把它貼著別的東西，才知道那個東西有多長。尺本身不重要，重要的是它替你回答了關於別的東西的問題。這就是整個字的畫面——一段固定不變的長度，用來靠在你想判斷的東西旁邊。
From the word’s history
From yard plus stick: a stick one yard long.
由 yard（碼）加 stick（棍子）組成，字面就是「一碼長的棍子」。
Wiktionary 'yardstick' etymology, supplied in the evidence packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1153068867)
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