Other forms: probes, probing, probed
To probe is to dig for what is hidden — with questions, with a tool, with careful pressure. A dentist running a metal point over a tooth, a reporter asking the same question for the fourth time, fingers pressing round a swollen ankle to find where it hurts.
It is a noun as well, and a busy one. A probe is an official investigation — a police probe, a probe into the missing money — and headline writers reach for it because it is short. A probe is equally the instrument: a thin surgical probe, a temperature probe pushed into the meat, a space probe sent out past Saturn. The verb takes into when it means to investigate: they probed into his finances. Probing before a noun describes questions that are hard to dodge, as in a probing interview. The word is calm on the surface, but it hints at resistance, because you probe what somebody would rather keep shut.
1verbprobeTo investigate something thoroughly, with searching questions.
“The committee probed the way the contract had been awarded.”
synonyms: investigate, examine
2verbexploreTo explore something physically with a finger or an instrument.
“The doctor probed the wound gently to see how deep it went.”
3nouninvestigationA thorough investigation, especially an official one.
“A police probe into the missing funds began on Monday.”
4nounslenderA slender instrument for exploring, measuring or testing something.
“He pushed the probe into the soil to read the temperature.”
5noununmannedAn unmanned spacecraft sent to study a planet or a region of space.
“The probe sent back pictures for eleven years before it went silent.”
The Latin is to test, the same testing behind prove. To probe is to test with questions until something gives.
hooks ontoprove
Probe comes from Latin probare, to test, examine or prove, which is built on probus, 'good' — testing a thing meant finding out whether it was any good. The noun came from Latin proba, 'a proof'. That makes probe a close relative of prove and proof: three English words for one Latin idea.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰuH-
Latin
probare — to test, examine, prove
English, today
probe
Built from
For verb: borrowed from Latin probare (“to test, examine, prove”), from probus (“good”). a doublet of prove. For noun: borrowed from Latin proba (“a proof”), from probare (“to test, examine, prove”); a doublet of proof. Compare Spanish tienta (“a surgeon's probe”), from tentar (“try, test”); see tempt.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA