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Comment by hartpuff | Hacker News Reader

Hopefully the parent of your post was joking - the site he linked to is a "joke" site - but either way, it's misleading and unhelpful (particularly to non-English speakers) to pretend that "begs the question" was used incorrectly there by tehabe. It wasn't.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/beg-the-q...

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/beg-the...

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beg%20the%20questi...

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I understand that language is dynamic, and colloquial misuse turns into accepted use, and so nonplussed means unimpressed and disinterested means uninterested, but with this expression I will stand with the pedants and the original meaning.

Prepare for a long, frustrating stand. Professional writers and journalists misuse it 100% of the times I have seen it used. I have seen a single person in my entire life use it correctly, and it was a random forum post about something stupid like a video game.

Also, you can add "droll" to the long list of misused words.

I think the same way about droll as I do begs the question.[1]

I don't see the point of insisting the original/archaic meaning of a word is 'correct' if, in the English-speaking world we live in today, essentially nobody uses it or understands it in that sense.

[1] I certainly do not think the same about nonplussed, however. I've never heard that word being used for unimpressed before, but it appears to be simply an Americanism; one I hope never catches on elsewhere.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/nonplus...

Of professional writers, I find that droll is used correctly maybe half the time. Which is frustrating, because either definition is a polar opposite and has a pretty profound effect on a scene. It's only from context several sentences later do you figure out which definition they meant.

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