I have some bad news for you. You’ve been using that phrase wrong. I’ve had friends and colleagues use it wrong—in writing—and I have bitten my tongue, because, as you know, I am not a corrector unless I’ve been asked to be one.

But I recently read it in Roxane Gay’s excellent (and moving) collection of essays, Bad Feminist, and she’s faculty at Purdue University’s MFA program in creative writing. So when it’s gone that far, kids, we need to talk.

Begs the question. It’s a term that refers to logic, and in laymen’s terms it means—as we used to say when I was a kid—What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

Grammar Girl says:

Here’s an example of a simple argument that begs the question. This one just restates the conclusion as a basis for the conclusion: Chocolate is healthful because it’s good for you. That begs the question. How do you know chocolate is good for you? Again, the question is What’s the support for your premise? or What does that have to do with anything? If I didn’t just accept that chocolate is healthful, I’m not going to accept that it’s healthful because you say it’s good for me. They’re the same thing. Make a better argument.

Begs the question. What it does not mean:

• It raises the question
• It begs that the obvious question be asked
• It evades the question
• It makes me wonder

What it does mean:

• Your argument lacks support
• Your premise and your conclusion aren’t logically related
• You’re just restating your conclusion

Shocking, isn’t it.

Here’s another one for you: penultimate. I cannot count the number of times I have seen people use this word incorrectly. People who should have checked before they put it in a blog post, for example.

Penultimate. Do you know what it means? Here’s what it doesn’t mean:

• More ultimate than ultimate
• Really, really special

So what does it mean?

• Next to the last

If there are forty chapters in your manuscript, chapter 39 is the penultimate chapter. Check your dictionary: the prefix pene- means almost. Got it?

I bring these things up because I know you’d want to know. 🙂 We all get some things wrong at some point. It’s how we learn, even the most experienced wordies among us.

So don’t feel bad if you’ve misused these. It raises the prescriptivist/descriptivist question, doesn’t it? Descriptivists believe the validity of a phrase or a word is ultimately defined by usage. If most people use words or phrases a certain way, then that constitutes valid use.

Right? Like hopefully. And meme. And hack. And begging the question and penultimate. It may be that these words ultimately change their meanings.

But I say don’t throw out the red pencil yet.

Tweet: We all get things wrong. It’s how we learn, even the most experienced wordies.
Tweet: I have some bad news for you. You’ve been using that phrase wrong.
Tweet: Begging the penultimate question!

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