Another Expression We Get Wrong

Here’s the quote:

Since then, it has joined the U.S. as a classic exception that proves the rule.

https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2

This in The New York Times, no less! And it says “classic”!!! Do they ever have this wrong!

The problem is the word “prove.” Its (ahem) classical meaning was “to test.” For example, in Malachi, you have

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Malachi 3:10

(This is the only passage in the Bible where God invites us to test Him, but I digress.)

The intent of the expression about proving the rule was to suggest that breaking the rule shows whether the rule was really a rule. If you get into trouble for breaking the rule, it’s a real rule. If you don’t get into trouble, the “rule” is merely a suggestion.

I like pictures in my posts. Here’s the picture that came with the article:

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I ran into an example of using “rest assured” incorrectly, then I lost it, so I don’t have a quote to share with you. But you can rest assured that I’ll show you the correct usage. The error is fairly common. Maybe I’ll find another example…

Don’t say “be rest assured.”

“Rest” is an ordinary verb, frequently used in the imperative. The expression tells you that you can rest!

“Rest” is not some kind of adjective describing assurance.

So use the expression to tell people how they can rest (feeling assured about something) when you want to calm them about something that could cause anxiety.

Harrumpf.

At least not directly. The word is cattle. We don’t say “thirteen cattle.” We say “thirteen head of cattle.” This linguistic quirk occurred to me when I was reading We Have No Idea, by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson, and they got their name for some livestock wrong. Here’s the guilty passage:

The Pierre Auger Observatory in South America is such a telescope. In 3,000 square kilometers of land, they have 1,600 particle detectors and more than 10,000 cows.

Don’t say “cows” either. It’s “head of cattle.”

Here’s a picture of the place:

“Less calories”? That can’t be right, can it? We count calories! Ah, but look at the whole sentence.

We measure sugar! The list of those two items allows us to go with the second item.

Well, technically, perhaps, he should have said “33% fewer calories and 33% less sugar,” but I don’t see that happening, except maybe in technical writing.

Sheldon has occasional comics that feature “the Unnecessary Pedant,” who corrects minor points of grammar. This time the human is right! I really don’t need to say anything else.