probable: [14] Latin probāre meant ‘test, approve, prove’ (it is the source of English probate [15], probation [15], probe [16], and prove). From it was derived the adjective probābilis ‘provable’, hence ‘likely’. It passed into English via Old French probable. => probate, probation, probe, prove, reprobate
probable (adj.)
late 14c., from Old French probable "provable, demonstrable" (14c.), from Latin probabilis "worthy of approval, pleasing, agreeable, acceptable; provable, that may be assumed to be believed, credible," from probare "to try, to test" (see prove). Probable cause as a legal term is attested from 1670s.
雙語(yǔ)例句
1. The Socialists united behind their probable presidential candidate, Michel Rocard.