This is Part 6. Go to Part 5
Sp. prueba and Eng.
proof and probe
Sp. prueba [ˈpɾu̯eβa]]
is the noun associated to the verb probar. It is already attested in the
13th century (Berceo). The noun comes from the Late Latin first declension feminine
noun prŏba,
which at first meant ‘proof’ and later, in Late Latin, also ‘test, trial’ (genitive
wordform: prŏbae,
accusative wordform: prŏbam).
These are all meanings that Sp. prueba, the descendant of Lat. prŏba, still has, since the
most basic meaning of Sp. prueba is ‘the action and result of probar’
and probar means ‘to prove’ as well as ‘to test/try’ (DLE: ‘acción y
efecto de probar’).
If the verb prŏbāre
(prŏb‑ā‑re) was derived from the
adjective prŏbus/a
(prŏb‑us/a)
in classical times, as we saw, the noun prŏba (prŏb‑a) seems to have been derived later on (in post-classical
times) by back-formation from the Latin verb prŏbāre. In both cases, the derivation
took place without the use of derivational affixes, just by changing the inflectional
suffixes, a type of derivation known as conversion or zero-derivation (cf. Part
I, Chapter 5).
Classical Latin
|
from adjective prŏbus (fem. prŏba)
|
Ž
|
verb prŏbāre
|
Post-classical
Latin
|
from verb prŏbāre
|
Ž
|
noun prŏba
|
This noun prueba is attested in writing very
early on in Spanish, since the end of the 12th century. It was at first spelled
prueva, with the letter 〈v〉, and in the 13th century we find
it spelled prueba, with the letter 〈b〉,
as in the Latin etymon (source word). The reasons for the changes in the spelling
were seen in the preceding section, and the fact that Sp. prueba has the
diphthong ‑ue‑ was also explained by the fact that Latin short ‑ŏ‑ always changed to ‑ue‑
in Old Spanish when stressed, but only in patrimonial words, not in words that were
borrowed from written Latin (cf. Part I, Chapter 1).
The word prueba is polysemous, just like the
verb probar is, and it can be translated into English by different words
depending on the sense. The following are the main senses for this word in Modern
Spanish:
(1) the
‘proof’ sense: just like the first sense of the verb probar was ‘to
prove’, the first sense of the noun prueba is ‘proof’, as in No hay
pruebas de que estuviera aquí ‘There is no proof that she was here’
(2) the
‘evidence’ sense: this sense is very closely related to the previous one but it
is used in legal contexts, where una prueba means ‘a piece of evidence’
and falta de pruebas means ‘lack of evidence’; in fact, if it weren’t
for the fact that English uses two different words for each of these senses, from
the perspective of Spanish, the two senses could be seen as one and the same
(3) the
‘test’ sense: we saw this sense earlier in the chapter; in academic and many
other contexts it translates as test, e.g. prueba de matemáticas
‘the math test’, prueba de aptitud ‘aptitude test’, prueba de alcoholemia
‘Breathalyzer test’, prueba de(l) embarazo ‘pregnancy test’, prueba
de paternidad ‘paternity test’; in theater and cinema, however, prueba
translates as audition (in cinema, also screen test)
(4) the
‘event’ sense, used in sports, which translates as event or race, depending on
the event, e.g. la prueba de los cien metros lisos ‘the hundred-meter
race/event’, prueba de obstáculos ‘obstacle race’, prueba
contrarreloj ‘timed race’
The
noun prueba is also found in many common expressions, which are either collocations
or idioms, depending on how transparent they are (cf. Part I, Chapter 6). The
following are the most common ones:
·
hacer la prueba ‘to try, give it a shot’
·
periodo de prueba ‘probationary/trial
period’
·
piloto de pruebas ‘test pilot’
·
vuelo de pruebas ‘test flight’
·
estar en (fase de) pruebas ‘to be on trial
(a trial period)’
·
estar a prueba ‘to be on a trial period’
·
poner/someter a prueba ‘to put to the
test’
·
a prueba de ‘-proof’, e.g. a prueba de
agua ‘waterproof’, a prueba de balas ‘bulletproof’
·
sala de pruebas ‘fitting room’,
‘testing/trial room’
·
hacer pruebas ‘to do trial tests’
·
prueba de compra ‘proof of purchase’
·
prueba de laboratorio ‘lab test’
The Spanish noun prueba is cognate with two
English nouns: proof and probe. Eng. proof [ˈpʰɹuf] is an early 13th century loanword from Old French preuve
or prueve ‘proof, test, experience’ (Modern French preuve [ˈpʀœv]), which descended
patrimonially from Late Latin prŏba, the source of Sp. prueba (see above).
After the loss of the final vowel sound in the English word, the ‑v‑
[v], which was now word-final, was devoiced to ‑f [f], a very common
sound change in many languages, resulting in a prove [ˈpʰɹuv] – proof [ˈpʰɹuf]
sound alternation similar to the one seen in the pair believe ~ belief
(cf. Part I, Chapter 7). Many other languages have descendants of this Latin noun.
In the Romance languages, the word is patrimonial, that is, descended orally and
uninterruptedly from Latin, e.g. Catalan prova, Italian prova (earlier
pruova), and Portuguese prova. Other, non-Romance languages have borrowed
this word as well, e.g. Dutch proef, English proof, German Probe,
and Swedish prova.
In the 19th century, English developed the verb to proof
from the noun proof by conversion. This verb has several meanings, such
as ‘make waterproof’ (Sp. impermeabilizar), and, since the 1950’s, ‘proofread
(a text)’ (i.e. short for proofread) (Sp. corregir pruebas de) (COED).
A third, less common sense of the verb to proof is ‘make a proof of (a
printed work, engraving, etc.)’ (COED).
Eng. probe [ˈpʰɹoʊ̯b] is first of all a noun that can mean either ‘a
careful examination or investigation of something’ or ‘a thin, long instrument
that is used especially for examining parts of the body’ (MWALD). It can also
mean ‘space probe’, since probe can be short form for (a clipping of) the
phrase space probe, ‘a device that is used to obtain information from
outer space and send it back to Earth’ (MWALD).
The noun probe is an early 15th century loanword from
Late Latin proba, the same word that gave us Sp. prueba and Eng. proof
(through Old French). This time English borrowed the word not through
French, but directly from (written) Latin. The original meanings of this
English word were ‘an examination, test’, as well as ‘instrument for exploring
wounds, etc.’. Both of these meanings are still current.
The three meanings of the English noun probe
translates into Spanish, respectively, as investigación, sonda,
and sonda espacial. The Spanish noun sonda is a loanword from Fr.
sonde [ˈsɔ̃d] ‘sounding-line,
sounding’, a 12th century loanword presumably from a Germanic language and
related to the Proto-Germanic word *sundą ‘swimming’ and ‘strait, sound’,
which is cognate with the English noun sound ‘a narrow stretch of water
forming an inlet or connecting two larger bodies of water’ and perhaps also
with the verb to sound meaning ‘ascertain (the depth of water in the
sea, a lake, etc.) by means of a line or pole or using sound echoes’ (COED). The
theory that these words are related to a Latin verb subundare that is only
attested once in Latin and which contains the Latin morphemes sub ‘under’
and unda ‘wave’, but this theory has been discredited.
English also borrowed the word sonde [ˈsɒnd] from French in the
mid-20th century, but with a narrower meaning: ‘an instrument probe that
automatically transmits information about its surroundings underground, under
water, in the atmosphere, etc.’ (OD).
English has turned the noun probe into a verb by
conversion, i.e. without making any other changes to the word, such as adding affixes.
The result is the verb to probe. This conversion happened in the
mid-16th century. Originally, its meaning was ‘to pierce, penetrate, or examine
with a probe, esp. something sharp, in order to test or explore’ but also ‘to
search (a person’s body) closely for something concealed’ (OED). Dictionaries
divide its meanings today as having a physical sense and one more figurative
one. One dictionary defines them as ‘physically explore or examine’ and ‘enquire
into closely’ (COED). Another one is more specific: ‘to ask questions in order
to find out secret or hidden information about somebody/something’ and ‘to
touch, examine or look for something, especially with a long thin instrument’
(OALD).
As for how to translate the verb to probe into
Spanish, in a medical context, it translates as sondar. In other contexts,
it can be translated as examinar, explorar or indagar, for
the ‘examine’ sense of the verb, but also tantear or sondear for
the ‘sound out’ sense regarding persons, motives, or reasons. The verbs sondar
and sondear seem to have been derived from the noun sonda. In medicine,
Sp. sondar means ‘to catheterize’ or ‘to sound, probe’; in mining, ‘to
test drill a hole into’; in navigation, ‘to sound, plumb, take soundings of’; and
in space exploration and meteorology, ‘to explore, probe’. Sp. sondear can
be just an alternative form of sondar, but it is also used in recent times
with the figurative senses of ‘to sound out, test’, as in the phrase sondear
la opinión pública ‘to sound out public opinion’ and sondear el
terreno ‘to spy out the land’, ‘see how the land lies’ (Collins).
Go to Part 7
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