Whats the meaning of the expression, “Thats the exception that proves the rule?
Dear Cecil: I’ve heard the following expression from people all over the country and on television. It makes absolutely no sense: “That’s the exception that proves the rule.” Is this a bastardization of some other phrase? If not, what does it mean? — Lorraine N., East Weymouth, Massachusetts Dear Lorraine: Don’t you get it? The whole point of this saying is that it doesn’t make sense. It’s what you say to confound your enemies when your argument has been shot out from under you by some pesky counterexample. From the point of view of advancing the debate it’s about one jump ahead of “yo mama,” but it beats standing there with your mouth open. To be sure, a few scholarly types have tried to make excuses for “The exception proves the rule,” as the quotation books usually phrase it. They say it comes from the medieval Latin aphorism Exceptio probat regulam. Probat means “prove” in the sense of “test,” as in “proving ground” or “the proof is in the pudding.” So “the exception proves the rul
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