Evidently the phrase "to shoot oneself in the foot" has two meanings, one now widely understood to mean accidentally hobbling oneself, as in a shooting accident, and the other, of specific WW1 origin, meaning Paul's definition of deliberately inflicting a lesser wound to prevent a worse outcome - but this must now surely be accounted archaic.
The same has happened with phrases like "begs the question", especially when a word has mutated or gone out of currency, as in the solecisms "to be on tenderhooks", "wreck havoc" and "wet your appetite". Unfortunately , we are hostages to "usage is the supreme arbiter" and must sometimes just roll over.
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