Dear Geist,
Am I crazy, or is the term near miss an oxymoron? It seems to me that a miss is a miss, and a near miss is—well, a hit.
—Jeannine, Cyberspace
Dear Jeannine,
Some idioms don’t perform well under the application of logic, and near miss is one of them. In the World War II years, it most often described a near collision of two aircraft or vehicles, or an incident of a bomb just missing its target. But now, says the trusty Canadian Oxford Dictionary, it also means “an attempt that is almost but not quite successful.” Like other idioms, near miss is generally understood without complaint, faulty logic and all.
—The Editors
