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beg the question

verb

Etymology

Translating Latin petītiō prīncipiī, itself translating Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhēî aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”).

  1. derived from τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι
  2. derived from petītiō prīncipiī

Definitions

  1. To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii).

    • The objection is that the argument begs the question, meaning that the premise, that God has all the virtues, assumes the conclusion, that God is benevolent.

  2. To sidestep or fail to address a question.

    • 1860, Henry Adams, letter, 6 May However I hope we shall do better as we go on and as long as there's no dodging or begging the question on our side, I'm not afraid.

  3. To raise or prompt a question.

    • Three people were hurt in the fire at the warehouse last night, which begs the question: what were they doing there in the first place?

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for beg the question. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA