OT: Proving the rule (was Re: OT: Russian in ASCII?)
| From: | Tristan McLeay <zsau@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, January 7, 2004, 13:56 |
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On Wed, 7 Jan 2004, Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
> True, that's a good point. Stupid as it my sound, Tchaikovsky is one of the few
> exceptions that confirm the rule. Or, to put it in a more sophisticated manner:
> when a person or place is commonly known in a wrong transcription, we don't
> change it.
The expression is 'the exception that proves the rule', and harkens back
to an older meaning of 'prove' and 'proof' of 'test'. Though along with
the changed definition of 'prove', the saying's been misanalysed as
meaning what you said.
--
Tristan
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