4 ms·

It raises the question, it doesn't beg it (sorry for the boring off-topic comment). https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/begging-the-question-how-

• tux3 5y ago
  Thank you! I think I was actually corrected on that once before, but maybe this time it'll stick =)
• mhb 5y ago
  A nice substitute might be begets. It is so similar, I wonder if that is where the confusion arose to begin with.
  • waterhouse 5y ago
    See https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2290 https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2290 for some details. I would summarize by saying, there were words involved (i.e. the Latin "petitio" and Greek "αἰτεῖσθαι") that have multiple meanings (a modern analogue being "plead", which can mean "ask"/"beg", but can also mean "plead to the court [some statement of fact]"—i.e. to make a claim), and the word "beg" comes from a translator selecting one of the wrong meanings. Also, "the question" is really a poor choice to mean "the original point to be proven"/"the conclusion"/"the point in question". I am strongly against prescriptivism telling people that a bad translation that makes no sense is correct. I recommend "assuming the conclusion" as a correct name.
• DemocracyFTW 5y ago
  This literally begs the question whether the prescriptive approach is to be preferred over the descriptive one.
• wallscratch 5y ago
  I feel like at this point common usage has moved so far away from this that it’s almost not worth trying to reel it back in.