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Wed Jul 16 02:53:54 CEST 2008 · https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2008-July/081198.html

Ben Finney wrote:
> Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > the shortest
> > possible way of writing negative assertions (i.e. asserting that
> > something is not the case) is to treat them as denials and use the
> > single word 'deny'.
> 
> This, to me, is neither intuitive nor meaningful in context. The term
> "deny" is strongly linked to its antonym, "permit".

"Deny" also has the meaning of claiming that something is
not true (as in "deny an allegation"). When used that way,
it's not an antonym of "permit".

However, that meaning doesn't quite seem to fit here, as
we don't just want to claim that the condition is false,
but *ensure* that it's false. I can't think of a single
word offhand that means that.

-- 
Greg

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Consolidating names and classes in the `unittest`module (updated 2008-07-15)