Prevaricate
Latin prae, before + vāricō, to straddle
Prevaricate refers to speaking or acting in an intentionally evasive or ambiguous way, deliberately avoiding the truth or a direct answer. It describes vague, indirect, or misleading communication: dodging a question, equivocating, or hedging so as never to commit to a clear position.
First principles
To prevaricate is to walk crookedly around the truth.
The prevaricator neither tells the truth plainly nor refuses to speak. They step toward the question and then sideways, keeping a foot on each side so they can never be pinned to either. The word still carries its first picture: a path that will not run straight.
At its core, it asks:
- What was the question?Name the plain thing that needed a plain answer.
- Where did the answer turn?Find the point where the reply stepped sideways instead of forward.
- What does the turn protect?Ask what the speaker keeps safe by never landing on one side.
Etymology
- prae
- before, in front
- vāricō
- to straddle, to spread the legs apart
The word prevaricate comes from the Latin prae meaning "before" or "in front" and vāricō meaning "to straddle," from vāricus, "with feet spread apart," and vārus, "bent." Joined in the verb praevāricor, they meant "to walk crookedly," to step out of line. In Roman law the word named an advocate who played a double part, secretly colluding with the other side in a sham trial. English borrowed it from praevāricātus, a form of that verb. It once also meant "to deviate" or "to transgress," a sense now obsolete; today it means to speak or act evasively.