probaticadj.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin probaticus of or relating to sheep (Vetus Latina, Vulgate) < Hellenistic Greek προβατικός belonging to sheep < ancient Greek πρόβατον a sheep (ultimately < προβαίνειν to go forward, advance ( < προ- pro- prefix² + βαίνειν to go: see basis n.); perhaps use as noun of a verbal adjective in -τός , though these usually have passive sense) + -ικός -ic suffix. Compare Middle French, French probatique (early 16th cent. in piscine probatique ; c1334 or earlier in Anglo-Norman in piscine probatik ; 1231 in Old French in an apparently isolated attestation in probatique piscine ), Catalan probàtic (14th cent.), Spanish probática (c1280 in piscina probatica ), Portuguese probático (1589), Italian probatico (13th cent. in probatica piscina ). Compare Bethesda n.In probatic pond , probatic pool , etc. rendering post-classical Latin probatica piscina (Vulgate) in John 5:2 (in the sentence est..Ierosolymis probatica piscina ). This appears to be a mistranslation of the Greek text which has ἔστιν..ἐπὶ τῇ προβατικῇ κολυμβήθρα ‘there is at the Sheep Gate a pool’, where προβατική represents use as noun (short for πύλη ἡ προβατική Sheep Gate; compare quot. 1958) of the feminine of προβατικός. Most English translations (except the West Saxon Gospels and the Wycliffite Bible, which ignore the word) correctly translate Greek προβατική as not modifying the word for ‘pool’. Compare for example:1534 Bible (Tyndale rev. Joye) John v. 2 And ther is at Ierusalem by ye slaughterhousse [side note, The greke hath shepe house: a place where they kylled the beestes that were santified] a pole called in ye Ebrue tonge Bethseda.1611 Bible (King James) John v. 2 Now there is at Hierusalem by the sheepe market [side note, Or, gate], a poole, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda.1989 Bible (Rev. Eng.) John v. 2 Now at the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool whose Hebrew name is Bethesda. Compare also the following isolated example, in which Latin probatica is left untranslated as a place name:1582 Bible (Rheims) John v. 2 There is at Hierusalem vpon Probatica [side note, By our latin text and the Greeke, this miraculous pond was in or vpon Probatica, that is, a place where the sheepe to be sacrificed, were kept. But by other latin copies, S. Hierom, and some Greeke fathers, Probatica is the very pond it self: so called, because the sheepe of sacrifice were there washed.] a pond which in hebrew is surnamed Bethsaida.