the.com/probation

means A trial period during which someone's conduct is tested — either a convicted offender released under supervision instead of imprisonment, or a new employee or member proving they're fit to stay.

from From Latin probatio, 'a testing or proving,' from probare, 'to test, prove, or approve' — the same root that gives us 'prove,' 'probe,' and 'approve,' all built on probus, 'good, honest, upright.' The word arrived in English through Old French in the late Middle Ages, first meaning the act of proving or examining; the sense of a supervised trial for offenders is a much later legal development. At its heart, then, probation has always been about being put to the test to show you're 'probus' — good enough to pass.