praevaricor

Forms

praevāricor (present infinitive praevāricārī, perfect active praevāricātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1] An active praevāricō is found in Late Latin, in Tertullian and in the Old Latin Bible.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- + vāricō (“to straddle”).^[3][2] De Vaan lists ⟨vāricāre⟩ “to straddle”, attested from Varro, among the derivatives of vārus¹ (“bent outwards, bow-legged”),^[4] whose further origin is unclear: he suggests Proto-Italic *wāro- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂-ro-, both with a question mark.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero on.^[2] Cicero uses it in its legal sense, of a man who took money from Catiline to betray his own case most shamefully.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, to straddle, survives in Pliny the Elder, of a ploughman who straddles the furrow unless he bends over;^[3] Lewis & Short read it as making a crooked furrow.^[5] In Roman law it was the technical word for an advocate or accuser who colluded with the other side to secure a set outcome.^[3][5] Quintilian says such collusion is never an orator's part, Tacitus uses it of an accuser who meant to cheat a victim of revenge, and Ulpian explains that the one who does it stands on both sides, or rather on the opponent's.^[3]

In Church Latin it came to mean to transgress or to sin against a law,^[1][6] and Christian writers such as Augustine also used active forms.^[2] English took prevaricate from it in the 1580s.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an advocate's collusion.^[3][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a ploughman straddling.^[3][7]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian says collusion is never an orator's part.^[3][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a collusive accuser.^[3][7]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses the active form.^[2][7]
• 1580s – Borrowed into English as prevaricate.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To straddle;^[3][5] (of a ploughman) to go crooked.^[3][5]
2. (law) (of an advocate or accuser) To collude with the opposing party, betray one's case.^[3][5]
3. (Late Latin) To transgress, violate, sin against.^[1][6]

Word family

• impraevāricābilis
• praevāricātiō
• praevāricātor

Related words

• English prevaricate

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de