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proving

SayPROO-ving/ˈpɹuːvɪŋ/

Noun pluralprovings

2 meanings of proving

Practice

  1. 1
    verb
    Present participle of prove.

    The mathematician is proving a result that puzzled experts for decades.

    Proving the contract was signed under pressure became the heart of the case.

    Note

    One spelling doing two jobs. After a form of be it is the participle (she is proving the theorem); in a noun slot it is the gerund (proving it took years). The copular use is worth knowing: the plan is proving costly means it is turning out to be costly, and the progressive suits that unfolding sense. The gerund has no plural, which separates it from the homeopathic noun.

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    Systematic testing to find out what effects particular substances produce when they are swallowed.

    The proving of the new remedy involved a dozen healthy volunteers.

    Each proving generated a long list of carefully recorded symptoms.

    Similartrial

    Note

    Homeopathy's term for its basic experiment. A substance is given to healthy volunteers and the symptoms it produces are recorded, building the symptom picture later used to match a remedy to a patient. Unlike the everyday gerund, it is countable (a proving, a book of provings). It comes from its own Middle English noun, traced back to a reconstructed Old English *prōfung.

proving is a form of prove

prove, verb: To demonstrate that something is true or valid by providing evidence or argument. Full entry

Forms
proveproves he/she/itproving -ing formproved past tense, past participle
Spelling
prove → proving: drop the e, add -ing

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Origins

Meaning 1

From Middle English provyng (also pryvynge), equivalent to prove plus the suffix -ing.

Meaning 2

From Middle English provyng and its variants (prevyng, preovyng, prufunge, and others), from Old English *prōfung, equivalent to prove plus the suffix -ing.