prove
Definitions
General Science
- verb to be discovered to have a particular quality
Food
Law
- verb to show beyond all doubt that something is true
Media Studies
Publishing
Origin & History of “prove”
The ultimate source of prove was Latin probus ‘good’. this went back (like the related Sanskrit prabhu- ‘eminent, mighty’) to a prehistoric Indo-European compound *pro-bhwo- ‘being in front’, hence ‘excelling’ (*pro- meant ‘in front’, and *bhwo- was the ancestor of English be). From it was derived the verb probāre ‘test, approve, prove’, which has given English approve, probable, probe, proof, reprobate, reprove, and of course prove, acquired via Old French prover. Another Latin derivative of probus was probitās ‘honesty’, from which English gets probity (16th c.).
