Hit-or-Miss Language

Amid all of the attention being paid to near-midair collisions, one small point has been overlooked: why are these incidents called near-misses when in fact they are near-hits ?

We haven’t lost any sleep over this question, mind you, but we are puzzled about why the common term for this scary occurrence means exactly the opposite of what it wants to say. Even more remarkably, there is no confusion about it among speakers of English. When someone says that there was a near-miss in the sky, everyone simply knows that two airplanes almost hit each other. The planes didn’t almost miss; they did miss--albeit they were near each other when they did.

Perhaps this is an example of the world’s penchant for euphemism. People like to avoid things that sound too nasty. Near-hit sends a shiver down the spine, while near-miss sounds less permanent. If that’s the case, then we certainly should call them near-hits in hopes that somebody might be moved to do something to lessen the chance of real hits.

Whatever these events are called, their occurrence means that the skies are overcrowded and undercontrolled.