proof

[ proof ]
/ pruf /

noun

adjective

verb (used with object)

Origin of proof

1175–1225; Middle English prove, prooff, prof, proufe, alteration (by association with the vowel of prove) of preove, proeve, prieve, pref < Middle French preve, proeve, prueve < Late Latin proba a test, akin to Latin probāre to test and find good; cf. pree

synonym study for proof

1. See evidence.

historical usage of proof

Proof entered English in the 12th century as Middle English prove, prooff, prof, proufe, with the meaning “evidence sufficient to establish a thing as true.” It finds its roots in Late Latin proba, meaning "a test." An example of proof meaning “test” is in the English proverb “All the proof of a pudding is in the eating,” first recorded in English in 1605. The proverb is popularly but wrongly attributed to Miguel Cervantes. In the second part of Cervantes’ Don Quixote (published in 1615), Cervantes wrote “Por la muestra se conoce el paño,” literally, “From the sample you know the cloth,” which was translated into English as “The proof of a pudding is in the eating” by Peter Anthony Motteux, a French-born English playwright and translator, in his English translation (third edition 1712). We know this today as the saying “The proof is in the pudding.”

OTHER WORDS FROM proof

re-proof, verb (used with object) un·proofed, adjective

Definition for proof (2 of 2)

-proof

a combining form meaning “resistant, impervious to” that specified by the initial element: burglarproof; childproof; waterproof.

Example sentences from the Web for proof

British Dictionary definitions for proof (1 of 2)

proof
/ (pruːf) /

noun

adjective

verb

Word Origin for proof

C13: from Old French preuve a test, from Late Latin proba, from Latin probāre to test

British Dictionary definitions for proof (2 of 2)

-proof

adjective, combining form

secure against (damage by); (make) impervious to waterproof; mothproof; childproof

Word Origin for -proof

from proof (adj)

Scientific definitions for proof

proof
[ prōōf ]

A demonstration of the truth of a mathematical or logical statement, based on axioms and theorems derived from those axioms.