Re: Three Levels of Understanding

[Fred Shapiro]

On Fri, 13 May 2005 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> > 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

I'm sorry I was imprecise.  I wasn't really talking about the "meaning" of
the expression, but rather about its authentic origins, its "etymological
meaning" if you will.  The earliest citations in OED make it clear that
the expression derives from the legal maxim.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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