Sir, - I am sorry to see Dr Paul Gosling, in his report on Clare Island (April 18th), saying "this begs the question" when he means "raises the question". This error has become common lately. "Begging the question" is a fallacy in logic - assuming or implying something that needs to be proved.
But is it any use protesting? All the time, words and phrases which once had a precise meaning are sliding down into vagueness. For instance, "protagonist", the chief actor in a play, weakens to "one of the protagonists" and then to "one of the chief protagonists" - at which point it means practically nothing. "Empathy" turns into a synonym for "sympathy", and "disinterested" for "uninterested". It's a sort of linguistic equivalent of the second law of thermodynamics: an inevitable and irreversible descent into randomness. - Yours, etc.,
Lower Mounttown,
Dun Laoghaire.