probation

probation

English

Etymology

From Middle French probation, from Old French probacion, from Latin probatio (“a trying, inspection, examination”), from probare, past participle probatus (“to test, examine”); see probate, probe, prove.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɹoʊˈbeɪʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

probation (countable and uncountable, plural probations)

1. A period of time when a person occupies a position only conditionally and may easily be removed for poor performance

   You'll be on probation for first six months. After that, if you work out, they'll hire you permanently.

2. (law) A type of sentence where convicted criminals are allowed to continue living in the community but will automatically be sent to jail if they violate certain conditions

   He got two years probation for robbery.

3. A testing period of time
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, pages 109–110:

     A probation of long and shameful years must be gone through; each one with the endurance more bitter, suffering yet more intolerable, before the debtor can arrive at that system of reckless evasion which is the last stage of poverty.

4. (archaic) The act of testing; proof
   • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, page 20,

     And I shall proceed to consider the testimony of Experience, when I shall have first advertis'd You, that if Men were as perfectly rational as 'tis to be wish'd they were, this sensible way of Probation would be as needless as 'tis wont to be imperfect.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], lines 148-156:

     And then it started like a guilty thing / Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, / The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, / Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat / Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, / Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air / The extravagant and erring spirit hies / To his confine: and of the truth herein / This present object made probation.

Derived terms

• probationary
• probation officer
• academic probation

Related terms

• probate
• probe
• prove

Translations

period of conditional employment or engagement

Bulgarian: стаж m (staž) Chinese: Mandarin: 试用期 (zh) (shìyòngqī) Czech: zkušební doba f Dutch: proeftijd (nl) m Finnish: koeaika (fi) French: période d'essai (fr) f German: Probezeit (de) f Greek: δοκιμασία (el) f (dokimasía) Hungarian: próbaidő (hu) Japanese: 保護観察 (ほごかんさつ, hogo-kansatsu) Malay: percubaan Plautdietsch: Proowtiet f Polish: staż (pl) m, okres próbny m Portuguese: contrato de experiência m, período de experiência m Romanian: perioadă de probă f Russian: испыта́тельный срок (ru) m (ispytátelʹnyj srok) Spanish: periodo de prueba m Swedish: praktisk arbetslivsorientering c Thai: ทดลองงาน

type of sentence

Bulgarian: условна присъда f (uslovna prisǎda) Chinese: Mandarin: 緩刑／缓刑 (zh) (huǎnxíng) Czech: podmíněný trest m, podmínka (cs) f Dutch: proefverlof (nl) Esperanto: provizora libero Finnish: ehdollinen vankeusrangaistus, ehdollinen (fi) French: liberté conditionnelle (fr) f German: Bewährung (de) f Greek: αναστολή υπό επιτήρηση f (anastolí ypó epitírisi) Hungarian: próbaidő (hu) Italian: libertà vigilata f Malay: percubaan Maori: poropeihana Portuguese: condicional (pt) f Romanian: probațiune (ro) f, perioadă de probațiune f Serbo-Croatian: uvjetna f, uvjetna kazna (sh) f Spanish: libertad condicional f

Further reading

• probation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• probation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

probation f (plural probations)

1. probation (especially religious)

Further reading

• “probation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.