Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts, anyone? But seriously, this is a piece of information I wish I didn't know. I wish I didn't know it because (1) I see "

Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts, anyone? But seriously, this is a piece of information I wish I didn't know. I wish I didn't know it because (1) I see "begs the question" used much more frequently to mean "compels us to consider" than the logical fallacy and (2) every time I see it used that way, an annoying, pedantic voice in the back of my head says, "oh, it's used wrong!" And then I have to waste some mental effort to tell that voice to STFU. It's rather distracting. So anyway. The problems are (1) the phrase "begs the question" is much more evocative of the "wrong" meaning than the "correct" meaning and (2) the wrong meaning is needed far more often than the correct one (people talk about things that need to be talked about more than they talk about making conclusions that accidentally assume themselves). Thus, I suggest we officially (perhaps a people's petition to the white house? I'm sure the current president would be sympathetic to our cause) abandon the use of "begs the question" to mean "assumes the conclusion", and finally put this annoying matter to rest.