Nonsense
There are certain phrases one hears over and over again, and that are never challenged, despite the fact that they are clearly nonsense.
A minor instance of this is the expression: ‘That’s the exception that proves the rule.’ To say that an exception to a rule proves the validity or truth of that rule is just nonsense. If there is an exception to a rule, then it is not a rule. It is a rule with exceptions – i.e., it ain’t really a rule. Now, I have read that in fact the original statement of this was ‘That’s the exception that preuves the rule.’ The word preuves (a word I have not seen elsewhere) means ‘tests’. I have no idea if that was indeed the original statement, but that an exception might test a rule is at least not nonsense.
However the phrase of this sort that has set my teeth on edge for eons is of arguably more import in the contemporary world. I read it most recently in the following quote from an opinion piece in The Harvard Crimson by Lawrence Bobo, Harvard’s Dean of Social Science.
“The truth is that free speech has limits — it’s why you can’t escape sanction for shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.”
That is simply wrong. That you cannot escape sanction for shouting fire in a crowded theatre is only true if in fact there is no fire. If there is a fire, you damn well better shout it, and pull the alarm while you’re at it. This is a sanction against lying, or causing needless panic. It has nothing to do with free speech or limits on it.
I suppose it is too much to expect the Dean of Social Science at Harvard to understand this.
Ellie
Word lover here: You have made my day. I never stopped to think about the relationship between “probe” and “prove” but of course they come from the same root. One now has more of a sense of “explore” while the other is more like “confirm” but it’s easy to imagine that language evolved while a saying, once sensible and now inane, did not. And by holding onto the saying we risk thinking there must be some value in a kooky assertion. Great example, thanks! Another old saying that never made sense to me–“The proof is in the pudding”–now makes perfect sense.