To ask earnestly or desperately for something, or to ask for money or food because you're poor.
From Old English 'bedecian,' possibly related to an Old English word 'beghard' (a lay beggar). The meaning shifted from the noun 'beggar' through 'beghard' to the verb 'beg' around the 1200s in English.
The phrase 'begging the question' doesn't mean 'raising the question'—it's a logical fallacy where your argument assumes what it's trying to prove, so the original meaning of 'beg' (earnestly request) got locked into philosophical terminology!
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