Grammar Girl here. I'm in Jan Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. Today, we're going to talk about collisions and near misses, and then we'll talk about how a bunch of dog breeds got their names.

A lot of people are bothered by linguistic usages that defy the rules of logic.

Why don't double negatives cancel each other out in a sentence like, he didn't do nothing?

Why is literally used so often to mean figuratively, and don't even get me started on the

inconsistencies of the English spelling system.

How do you spell the oo sound with 1-0 like in 2-T-O, 2-0s like in boot,

E-W as in new, U-E as in Sue, or O-U-G-H, like in through?

And don't forget that O-U-G-H stands for different sounds in different words like tough and trough. But sometimes seemingly illogical words and phrases actually do make sense deep down,

and the phrase near miss is one of them. The logician in you may bristle at the frequent use of near-miss to mean near-collision,

that is a miss. Surely if something is described as a near-miss, then it must be something

that is nearly or almost a miss, and so not a near-collision, but an actual hit or a collision.

So why do we use the phrase to mean the opposite,

an actual miss? Well, to get to the bottom of it, let's start by unpacking the word near.

Merriam-Webster gives several definitions for near in its adjective use when it's modifying a noun. Two of these seem to contradict

each other. Near can mean almost happening, narrowly missed or avoided, as in a near when or a near

collision. Confusingly, it can also mean nearly not happening is in a near escape.

The meaning of near escape parallels the common use of near miss.

A near escape is a narrow escape, an escape that almost didn't happen but actually did.

A near miss then, applying the same logic, is a miss that almost didn't happen, but actually did. A near miss then, applying the same logic, is a miss that almost didn't happen,

but actually did. In other words, it's a miss that was almost a collision, but turned out to be a miss,

a disaster averted. Of course, one could argue that there's illogic baked into the definition of near. How can it be used

to mean both almost happening and almost not happening? But if we go by that logic, then we're going to

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