Re: Three Levels of Understanding

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 5/13/05 7:29:09 AM, fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU writes:


> Example: the phrase "the exception proves the rule."  The
> man-in-the-street understanding is that this, illogically, means that an
> exception to a rule strengthens the evidence for the rule.  The
> second-level, pseudo-sophisticated explanation is that "proves" in this
> expression has an archaic meaning of "tests."  The third-level, accurate
> explanation is that this is a legal proverb meaning that the very fact of
> there being an exception proves the existence of a rule in cases not
> excepted.  If there is a law saying you can't buy liquor on Sundays this
> implies that you can buy liquor on the other days.
> 

If this has been discussed here before, I apologize, but I'm not quite sure 
what Fred is saying with respect to the "meaning" of the saying, "The exception 
proves the rule." Is he saying that the legal sense historically preceded the 
"PROVE = TEST" reading, or simply that the legal sense--which is certainly a 
linguistically sound meaning, it seems to me--happens to coincide (more or 
less) with the folk-wisdom reading?