Tergiversate Or Not Ter Giversate…
While doing research for one of those weird words that jumps off the page and grabs me from time-to-time, I stumbled across another one that smacked me upside the head with a big etymological stick. The original word, which I exposed here recently, was disambiguation. Our new mot du jour is tergiversate, which is a verb meaning:
1: be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information (syn: beat around the Bush (capitalization and emphasis added), equivocate, prevaricate, palter) 2: abandon one’s beliefs or allegiances (syn: apostatize, apostatise)
In the original disambiguation post I made a weak joke by saying that I thought the word “must have something to do with disarming the White House of WMDs.” Little did I realize how close I was to the truth. Look at the definition of tergiversate again… “be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information.” Sounds like the Bush Whitehouse to me. If that is not enough, the second definition reads… “abandon one’s beliefs or allegiances.” Has there ever been anyone in high public office who so transparently abandoned their expressed beliefs, avowed allegiances, and proclaimed principles as the One and Only Court Appointed High Emperor and Batboy of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Kingdoms Forever and Ever Amen, George Wishywashy Bush?
Whether Herr Bushkie and comrades are being ambiguous, tergiversating, or are just too stupid to remember what lie they told last time, we need some serious disambiguating, or perhaps exorcism of dem damn daemons, performed on the miserable assemblage that passes itself off as the Administrative Branch of the government of these great United States of America.
7 Comments so far
Nice word! I have a new one today on my blog today too.
Great word. Never heard of that one before. Loved your insightful analysis.
Ooh, Winston! First disambiguation and now tergiversate - well! I can only thank you for keeping us in the much-hated Liberal Elite with such big ol’ words.
Do you think that “tergiversate” is kin to “tergivashit”?
Tergivashit… oh, MaryB, wish I had thought of that one! I do not believe the 2 words are related since Bush absolutely tergiversates, but as we all know, does not tergivashit…
Amen on that one, brudda’!
I love it. tergivashit. I learned ‘disambiguation’ from Wiki(pedia) where they have a special page to explain choices should one search for a term with multiple meanings like, say, ‘nut’. I wrote an unenlightening but possibly entertaining piece in my blog about ‘feciture’ after seeing “fell feciture” on another blog. Now to look up ‘palter’…
Great, great, word…. especially applied to the iraq/ bush/ and-don’t-forget-Blair context… masters of amphibology