subterfuge

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French subterfuge and directly borrowed from Late Latin subterfugium (“evasion”),^[2][3][4][5] from Latin subterfugiō (“to escape by stealth, slip away, evade”),^[2][4][6] formed from subter (“beneath; secretly”), the source of the prefix subter-, and fugiō (“to flee”).^[2][6][4] Etymonline takes subter from Proto-Indo-European *sup-ter-, a comparative form of *(s)up-.^[4] The French noun is recorded once in 1316, then from 1477,^[2] and the Latin noun from the 6th century, often from the 12th century in British sources, where it also meant "hiding place" from about 1200.^[2] The Anglo-Norman noun, recorded from 1341, meant "refuge, hiding place".^[7] The American Heritage Dictionary adds an earlier stage, Old French suterfuge.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Klein derive the English word from Latin alone.^[6][9] The rare English verb is from the Latin verb, according to the OED,^[2] or from the English noun, according to the Shorter Oxford.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A trick used to escape the force of an argument or to avoid blame: 1563, in Hay's Confutation of Abbote of Crosraguels Masse.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also has 1563;^[6] Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to 1573 and the 1570s.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Beside the stratagem, the word was also used from 1581 for a way of escaping blame or responsibility, an excuse, a sense the OED follows to 1899.^[2][10] From 1593 it meant a place of shelter or refuge, now rare;^[2] from 1616 to 1737 it also meant a hiding place.^[2] The OED notes that the French word did not have this sense of shelter.^[2] From 1621 it also meant something meant to hide one's true attitude or identity, a pretence.^[2][10] Johnson (1755) glossed it "a shift; an evasion; a trick", and quoted Watts on "little shifts and subterfuges to avoid the force of an argument".^[11] A verb, "to use subterfuges", is recorded from 1622.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1563 – a stratagem to escape an argument or blame; an evasive statement.^[2][6]
• 1581 – a means of escape from blame; an excuse (obsolete by 1899).^[2]
• 1593 – a place of shelter; a refuge.^[2]
• 1616 – a hiding place (obsolete by 1737).^[2]
• 1621 – something that conceals one's true attitude or identity; a pretence.^[2]
• 1622 – verb, to use subterfuges.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Deception by a stratagem, used to hide something or to avoid or escape something: She used subterfuge to get past the guards.^[6][12]
2. A deceptive device or evasion of this kind.^[6][2][12]
3. (obsolete, 1581–1899) An excuse.^[2][5]
4. (obsolete) A place of retreat or refuge.^[6][5] The OED calls this sense now rare.^[2]

Verb

1. (rare) To use subterfuges; to be evasive.^[2][5]

Related words

• fugitive
• refuge

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins