Incorrect proverbs

Is this really a proverb? I don't know. We'll work through this together.

"It's the exception that proves the rule."

Quite a common saying, and I'm sure we've all heard it before. The travesty, however, is that most people are using the phrase incorrectly. "Prove" in this instance relates to an archaic use of the word, meanly simply "to test". No assumption of a positive outcome is made.

Therefore, when we talk about an exception proving the rule, we are actually talking about it testing the rule. The next time somebody cites an instance of a rule being disproved by an exceptional case, followed by them asserting the correctness of the rule because it failed, please throw a bible at him/her.

We do this sort of thing in software engineering -- it's called exception testing. A banking system, for example, may work perfectly well with standard numbers. But what happens when one enters a ridiculously large number? Or a negative number? If the system still holds, then the exception has tested the system.

Consider, in modern usage, that one cites, say, the rule that "All Frank Zappa LPs are good". If a person is then able to provide a Frank Zappa LP that is not good, the inclination will be to say that the rule is still valid, because it was disproved by its exception. That is bullshit.

If we're talking about speed cameras, and that they're supposed to be able to photograph all speeding vehicles. Let's say they photograph all speeding cars with ease... So far, so good. But what about a motorcycle? Different from the usual fare. If the camera photographs the bike as well, then we can safely say that the exception has proved (read: "tested") the rule.

Sorry that this took so long, but it's something I strongly believe in.