[blml] Exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[richard.hills at immi.gov.au]

Michael Quinion:

>>The true origin of the phrase lies in a medieval Latin legal
>>principle:
>>exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis, which may be
>>translated as "the exception confirms the rule in the cases not
>>excepted".

Alain Gottcheiner:

>I'm sorry, Sir; this is simply not true. Check for example at :
>
>http://www.alanemrich.com/Class/Class_Practical_Latin.htm
>
>And you'll find the original sense, which dates back to Antiquity :
>"an exception tests the rule".

Practical Latin website:

>>>exceptio probat regulam: "the exception establishes the rule."

Alain Gottcheiner:

>A sort of pre-Popperian falsifiability principle, so to speak.
>
>What has been done of it thereafter is another story.

Michael Quinion:

>>It has often been suggested in reference works that _prove_ here is
>>really being used in the sense of "test" (as it does in terms like
>>"proving ground" or "the proof of the pudding is in the eating", or in
>>the printer's proof, which is a test page run off to see that all is
>>correct with the typesetting). It is said that the real idea behind
>>the saying is that the presence of what looks like an exception tests
>>whether a rule is really valid or not. If you can't reconcile the
>>supposed exception with the rule, there must indeed be something wrong
>>with the rule. The expression is indeed used in this sense, but that's
>>not where it comes from or what it strictly means.

Richard Hills:

Qui nimium probat, nihil probat.

:-)


Best wishes

Richard James Hills, amicus curiae
National Training Branch, DIAC
02 6223 9052

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