-----Original Message----- From: Mark A. Mandel [mailto:thnidu at yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 6:53 PM To: Chris Olson - SunPS; dragaera at dragaera.info Subject: Re: duh! --- Chris Olson - SunPS <Chrisf.Olson at Sun.COM> wrote: >> Which begs the question: When's the "right time"? >RAISES the question. >beg, vb.: > 6. To take for granted without warrant; esp. in to beg the question: to take for granted the matter in dispute, to >assume without proof. > -- Oxford English Dictionary This is an interesting point. I generally uses "begs the question" as denoting a argument fallacy. But every once in a while I want to use it as "raises the question", and I think there is at least a popular movement to change the meaning of the phrase. I don't think I would object to the meaning being changed, since intuitively I can see "that begs the question" as meaning "what you have just said is akin to begging me to ask you this follow-up question". I don't know what the etymology is (perhaps both meanings were in usage at some point), but I'm inclined to use it both ways, despite what the OED says. At one point the OED defined a whale as a fish; meanings change with use. Shawn