• tergiversate •
Printable Version Pronunciation: têr-ji-vêr-sayt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive
Meaning: 1. To equivocate, to be ambivalent or indecisive. 2. To reverse position, to apostatize, to go over to the other side.
Notes: The [g] in this word behaves normally in that it is pronounced softly (like [j]) before a vowel pronounced in the front of the mouth, [i]. (The other front vowel is [e], as in gem, geriatric, gesture.) The [r]s are optional for our British and Australian friends. The noun is tergiversation and a person who equivocates or switches sides is a tergiversator.
In Play: Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina became one of the best-known political tergiversators when he switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party over issues with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Notice that tergiversation is not a deceitful betrayal but an open switching of positions or parties, "I'm supporting Throckmorton, but if he doesn't give us a bonus this year, I'll tergiversate to those trying to oust him."
Word History: This Good Word comes from Latin tergiversatus, the past participle of tergiversor "to turn one's back, decline or refuse", made up of tergum "back" + versare "to turn." Vers-, the root of versare, goes back to PIE *wer-/wor- "turn, bend", found in many words, that retain this sense: revert, divert, transverse. But that is it in worm , too, not to mention the Italian version, verme better known in the name of the pasta that looks like little worms, vermicelli. (Today's Good Word was a suggestion of lexiphile M. Henri Day, who never tergiversates on his fascination for words.)
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