English Language & Usage Asked on January 9, 2021
If I understand it correctly, a "vexed question" is bothering, annoying, and frustrating us; not being bothered, annoyed, and frustrated by us. As such, I’d expect the active (present, -ing) participle, not the passive (past, -ed).
Yet, Google N-Gram shows that the term "vexed question" is about 3 times as prevalent as the "vexing question", and decades ago it was 10 or 20 times as widespread.
I remain vexed by this vexing issue.
If you search vexed question in the available dictionaries, you will find that it is a British idiomatic expression which, according to Collins, means
an issue that is much debated and discussed
If you look up vexing question, however, it is interesting that Google still gives entries for vexed questions, and only one or two instances of vexing treated on its own. For example, MWebster defines it as
causing or likely to cause vexation : VEXATIOUS. Ex: a vexing problem
Therefore, I believe that a vexing question is simply a question that vexes or annoys, whereas a vexed question is rather a complicated problem that has caused a lot of discussion and argument and is difficult to solve.
Answered by fev on January 9, 2021
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