On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 14:02:45 +0000 (UTC), CyberCypher
<cybercyp...@19--16-25-13-01-03.com> said:

"Begs the question" does NOT clearly mean "raises the
question".  That's a corruption of the original meaning,
which was to "assume the truth of a thing to be proved or a
thing equivalent to it" (_New Shorter Oxford_)

Apparently, people heard "beg the question", thought they
knew what it meant, and used it that way; and it became
common enough usage to be considered acceptable.

Another misuse that has made its way into dictionaries is
"to evade a difficulty".  Interesting to see, _The New
Shorter Oxford_ has that definition, but it doesn't even
mention the "raises the question" definition.

When you say "begs the question", you can't depend upon its
being understood correctly.  There will be some who will
know the proper meaning and others who will know only one of
the corrupted meanings.

I'd never heard "beckons the question", but I think it's a
highly commendable phrase, since it says unexceptionably
what some people have mistakenly come to think "begs the
question" means.  It sounds like it could have been
someone's invention to avoid the ambiguity of "begs the
question".

--
Bob Cunningham, Southern California, USofA

Down with Miss Thistlebottom:  
Let's hear it for "like" as a conjunction!