"That begs the question..."
This isn't really an annoying phrase in itself, it's just that hardly anyone knows what it really means. It doesn't just mean "raises the question." It means that the question has assumed the answer to begin with.

On similar lines, "it's the exception that proves the rule." This is particularly frustrating when it comes from somebody who really ought to know better, such as a teacher. Frustrating enough when it's being used to dismiss any counterexample to a sweeping generalisation, on the grounds that every rule has an exception (which is shoddy thinking to start off with) therefore if you happen to find it, it actually adds to the rule's validity...

What it means is that if a rule has a set of exceptions explicitly listed along with it (for instance in a piece of legislation), it is implied that the rule should be taken to hold in every other case not covered by those exceptions.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 17:51, 9 replies)

Not quite.
I think this was mentioned on QI (in other words, I didn't work it out for myself) -- "prove" has another meaning, from which we get "proving ground", and it is that to which this phrase is thought to refer.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 17:56, closed)

Yes quite.
It comes from a legal appeal brought against the Roman Empire by a certain foreign soldier in the Roman Army who had his request for citizenship turned down. He argued that because there was a set of exceptions to being entitled to citizenship, and he didn't fit any of them, then he ought to be eligible for citizenship. He won the case.

Don't believe everything you hear on QI. Although "prove" does have another meaning, it's not the origin of this phrase.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 17:58, closed)

erm...
I'm not so sure I believe you.
(Smale is stuffed, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 20:56, closed)

Think about it.
Even with the alternative meaning of "prove" as something more along the lines of "test", the phrase still doesn't make much sense.

Failing that, Google Lucius Cornelius Balbus.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 22:15, closed)

If everyone uses a phrase to mean something
then that's what it means.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 18:09, closed)

No it doesn't.
It might be what they mean, but that doesn't mean it's what it does mean.

Anyway that hardly excuses anyone from meaning something that makes no damn sense.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 18:11, closed)

This is true of course
but that's not the problem. The masses have yet another general way to say "which leads us to ask..." ; the English language has lost a unique and precise phrase that means "assuming that which you set out to prove". A perfectly good and useful phrase yet againg ruined by ill-educated fuckwits.
(scep, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 18:50, closed)

Yes and...
when people say 'well the question is mute because...' when they mean moot. Twats.
(Smale is stuffed, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 20:55, closed)

Or worse, they say
"the question is moot" but think that moot means the question is irrelevant or doesn't need discussing because it's been settled when it is in fact the complete opposite. Twats.
(scep, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 21:02, closed)