Prevaricate

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Dr. Goodword
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Prevaricate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:03 pm

• prevaricate •


Pronunciation: pree--rê-kayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive (no objects)

Meaning: To avoid the truth, to equivocate, to be intentionally misleading by making up a false account, to lie cagily or elaborately.

Notes: It is difficult to call someone a liar; that is such a harsh word. It is also an identical homonym with the other lie "to be in or move into a prone position". "Brett is lying on the sofa" is ambiguous between indicating that Brett is in a prone position or that he is misleading people from his perch on the couch. So, if you need a longer word, an unambiguous word, a less offensive word, prevaricate is at your service. The noun is prevarication and anyone who engages in prevarication, a very prevaricative activity, is a prevaricator.

In Play: You might think that prevaricate is class-determined: you and I merely lie, but pop-stars, politicians, pundits and panjandra prevaricate: "It is amazing how agilely and casually business, religious, and political leaders navigate in a world of pretense and prevarication." If you prefer to treat this word more democratically, we can apply it to everyone, beginning at an early age: "Mom, Eileen is prevaricating again: she just told dad that I pulled her hair and I only very lightly brushed against it."

Word History: This Good Word, referring to people who do not talk straight, originated as a word referring to people who do not walk straight. It comes from prevaricatus, the past participle of the Latin verb prevaricari "to walk crooked", made up of pre- "before, ahead" + varicare "to straddle". If you get bent out of shape when people prevaricate, maybe this is why: varicare comes from varicus "straddling", an adjective from varus "bent, bow-legged or knock-kneed". (I will not prevaricate: it was our old friend Californian Susan Lister, who suggested we make this slightly twisted word a Good One.)
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Slava
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Re: PREVARICATE

Postby Slava » Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:50 am

I think of prevarication as a kind of lying with deniability. That is, deniability of a sort, whether plausible or not.

Lying in the sense of being recumbent is on its way out, so that problem is solved. I almost never see it anymore, laying has replaced it. I may despise it, and won't do it myself, but that's the way it is, language changeth.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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