# The Exception that Proves the Rule **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 28, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-exception-that-proves-the-rule/617068 "2012-03-28T18:06:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-exception-that-proves-the-rule/617068/21 "2012-04-09T21:44:54Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > I’m not sure what you mean here. If you mean that you want proof that this is the answer to the original question of what the idiom means, well that is the matter being discussed. If, on the other hand, you are merely asking whether the word “prove” has that meaning in English, well, yes, it does, as can be seen in any adult dictionary, and has had it since the middle ages. (The OED lists it as branch II.) The former. ---
**Author:** ![BabyBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9de0a6/32.png) [@BabyBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabyBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-exception-that-proves-the-rule/617068/22 "2016-08-26T01:20:33Z")
> **[Exception that proves the rule](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule)** > > "The exception that proves the rule" is a saying whose meaning is contested. Henry Watson Fowler's Modern English Usage identifies five ways in which the phrase has been used, and each use makes some sort of reference to the role that a particular case or event takes in relation to a more general rule. > Two original meanings of the phrase are usually cited. The first, preferred by Fowler, is that the presence of an exception applying to a specific case establishes ("proves") that a general rule e... This site shows the origin of the phrase. I found it very clarifying. As this phrase always confused me as well. Some of the statements of others touched on the same info. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-exception-that-proves-the-rule/617068.md?page=1)