probation

Forms

probation f (plural probations)^[1] Old French probatïon;^[2][3][4] Middle French and Anglo-Norman also probacion.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin probātiō (“trial, examination, proof”), borrowed about 1330.^[2][5] The Latin noun is formed on probātum, the supine of probō (“to test, prove”), the source of prouver, itself from probus (“good, upright”).^[2][5][6] Littré gives the cognates Old Occitan proazo, Spanish probacion and Italian probazione.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears about 1330 in the Girart de Roussillon, in the sense of “proof”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle French the word meant “proof” and was pushed out in that sense by preuve in the 15th century, although Calvin still used it so.^[5][3] It survived in the language of the Church: about 1350 Gilles Li Muisis wrote of a year of probation before taking the habit.^[2][5] From 1549 it also named the novitiate itself.^[5][7]

By extension it was used of any period of trial, first in 1870 of a convict's time in a cell before his sentence began.^[2][5] The penal sense of a sentence suspended under supervision is attested in French in 1953, in a United Nations report; the TLFi notes that the English word probation had it as early as 1897.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – The Girart de Roussillon uses probatïon “proof”.^[2][5]
• c. 1350 – Gilles Li Muisis writes of a year of probation in a religious order.^[2][5]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne records it for the novitiate itself.^[7]
• 1870 – It is used of a convict's probationary time in a cell.^[2][5]
• 1953 – The penal sense appears in a United Nations report.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Catholicism) The period of trial before the novitiate in some religious orders, also the novitiate itself.^[2][8][9]
2. (criminal law) probation, the suspension of a sentence while the offender is supervised and helped back into society: période de probation.^[8][9][2]
3. (dated) A trial, a test or proof.^[2][7]

Related words

• probatoire
• probant
• prouver
• preuve
• probe
• Latin probātiō
• English probation

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)