Subject: Re: [HM] "exception that PROVES the rule"
From: R. E. Taylor (leesoft@mindspring.com)
Date: Tue Feb 29 2000 - 20:01:51 EST
I am not sure I agree that this usage is as obsolete as you suggest. I
have always, that is as long as I can remember, understood the term to
have the multiple meanings you mention. In fact the sense "to demonstrate"
is listed in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as the 3ed meaning of the
word, the first being " To try or to ascertain by an experiment or by a
standard; to test; now, esp., to subject to a technical testing process;
as, to prove cannon, gold, coal." This is not to suggest that the word
is not Taken in the 3ed meaning by the bulk of English speakers. I suggest
that this usage to the exclusion of other meanings of the word has come
precisely from mathematical training, i.e. math teachers and text books
have used it so for several generations now. That, combined with the
general decay of our literacy level.
Your question is very interesting though.
Regards,
Bob Taylor
"James A. Landau" wrote:
>
> A post by Julio Gonzalez Cabillon on 02/27/2000 at 4:53:51 AM EST included
> the following words:
>
> > Cervantes' writings are the exception that confirm the rule
>
> The catchphrase that Julio is paraphrasing is "the exception that PROVES
> the rule".
>
> What this "proves" is that Julio's command of modern English is so
> good that he has fallen into the same trap as 99+ % of native English
> speakers (including this writer) by assuming that "prove" is a synonym
> for "confirm".
>
> Except for this particular phrase, yes, "to prove" means "to confirm".
> However, the phrase in question is a fossil, its wording unchanged since
> before the English word "prove" came to mean "confirm". At one time
> "prove" meant "to test the truth, validity, or genuineness of, as in
> 'the exception proves the rule' or "prove a will at probate'" (quoted
> from the Merriam-Webster 10th Collegiate Dictionary page 940). It is
> only somewhat late that "prove" came to mean "To establish the existence,
> truth, or validity of(as by evidence or logic), as in 'prove a theorem'
> or 'the charges were never proved in court'" (ibid).
>
> This archaic meaning of "to test" rather than "to confirm" occurs in
> modern English only in certain stereotyped usages, such as "proving
> ground" (where a new item of equipment is tested to see if it works)
> and "100 proof whiskey".
>
> Question for the HM list: when did the English language first start
> using "to prove" in the modern sense of "to prove a theorem"?
>
> James A. Landau
> Systems Engineer
> FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
> Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA
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