Gauge (also spelled “gage”) has an uncertain ancestry. Early French and English peoples had gauger, gagen, etc., which referred to the measuring of wine casks; some believe our “gallon” and “gill” to have been thus derived. Its meaning became enlarged to include any kind of measuring, literally or figuratively. The instrument used to do the measuring came to be called “the gage.” Among Operative Masons it was used to measure a stone for cutting to the required “twenty-four-inch gage” is such a measuring rod or stick marked off into twenty-four inches.
