prevaricate

UK/pɹɪˈvaɹɪkeɪt/US/pɹɪˈvæɹɪkeɪt/

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans spoken

Other forms: prevaricated

To prevaricate is to avoid a straight answer. Stop prevaricating.

It is not quite lying, which is what makes it so useful and so irritating. To prevaricate literally means to walk crookedly, straddling the furrow rather than following it.

Definitions of prevaricate

1verbprevaricateTo avoid a straight answer.C2
“He prevaricated for twenty minutes and answered nothing.”

prevaricate is an action.

Where it comes from

Latin praevaricari, to walk crookedly, from varus, bent; a ploughman who strayed from the furrow.

Latin
praevāricātus
English, today
prevaricate

Built from

praevāricor · Latin — to walk crookedly; to play a false or double part
varico · Latin — to stand with feet apart, straddle
vāricus · Latin — with feet spread apart

Latin praevāricātus, of praevāricor (“to walk crookedly; to play a false or double part”), from prae- + varico (“to stand with feet apart, straddle”), from vāricus (“with feet spread apart”); see -ate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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