Unit-01 PROB Flashcards
PROB
PROB comes from the Latin words for “prove or proof” and “honesty or integrity.” A probe, whether it’s a little object for testing electrical circuits or a spacecraft headed for Mars, is basically something that’s looking for evidence or proof. And probable originally described something that wasn’t certain but might be “provable.”
approbation
A formal or official act of approving;
praise, usually given with pleasure or enthusiasm.
* The senate signaled its approbation of the new plan by voting for it
unanimously.
Approbation is a noun form of approve, but approbation is usually stronger
than mere approval. An official commendation for bravery is an example of
approbation; getting reelected to office by a wide margin indicates public
approbation; and the social approbation received by a star quarterback in high
school usually makes all the pain worthwhile.
probate
The process of proving in court that the will of someone who has died is valid, and of administering the estate of a dead person.
- When her father died, she thought she would be able to avoid probate, but she wasn’t that lucky.
Ever since people have written wills, those wills have had to be proven genuine by a judge. Without a probate process, greedy acquaintances or relatives could write up a fake will stating that all the person’s wealth belonged to them. To establish a will as genuine, it must generally be witnessed and stamped by someone officially licensed to do so (though wills have sometimes been approved even when they were just written on a piece of scrap paper, with no witnesses). Today we use probate more broadly to mean everything that’s handled in probate court, a special court that oversees
the handling of estates (the money and property left when someone dies), making sure that everyone eventually receives what is properly theirs.
probity
Absolute honesty and uprightness.
- Her unquestioned probity helped win her the respect of her fellow judges.
Probity is a quality the public generally hopes for in its elected officials but doesn’t always get. Bankers, for example, have traditionally been careful to project an air of probity, even though banking scandals and bailouts have made this harder than ever. An aura of probity surrounds such public figures as Warren Buffett and Bill Moyers, men to whom many Americans would entrust their children and their finances.
reprobate
A person of thoroughly bad character.
His wife finally left him, claiming he was a reprobate who would disappear for weeks at a time, gambling and drinking away all his money.
The related verb of reprobate is reprove, which originally, as the opposite of approve, meant “to condemn.” Thus, a reprobate, as the word was used in
Biblical translations, was someone condemned to hell. But for many years reprobate has been said in a tone of joshing affection, usually to describe someone of doubtful morals but good humor. Shakespeare’s great character Falstaff—a lazy, lying, boastful, sponging drunkard—is the model of a reprobate, but still everyone’s favorite Shakespeare character.
