different between prevaricator vs prevarication

English

Etymology

prevaricate +? -or or Latin praevaricator: compare French prévaricateur.

Noun

prevaricator (plural prevaricators)

1. One who prevaricates.
2. (historical) An orator at the University of Cambridge fulfilling a similar function to the terrae filius at Oxford.

Translations

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pre.u?a?.ri?ka?.tor/, [p??u?ä????kä?t??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pre.va.ri?ka.tor/, [p??v??i?k??t??r]

Noun

prev?ric?tor m (genitive prev?ric?t?ris); third declension

1. Alternative form of praev?ric?tor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman prevaricassion, Middle French prevarication, and their source, Latin praev?ric?ti? (“collusion with an opponent; transgression; deceit”), from the stem of praev?ricor.

Pronunciation

• (non-merged vowel) IPA^(key): /p???væ???ke???n/
• (merged vowel) IPA^(key): /p???væ???ke???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

prevarication (countable and uncountable, plural prevarications)

1. (now rare) Deviation from what is right or correct; transgression, perversion.
2. Evasion of the truth; deceit, evasiveness.

   Prevarication became the order of the day in his government while truth was a stranger in those halls.

   • 1779, William Cowper, Retirement

     The august tribunal of the skies, where no prevarication shall avail.

   • 2012, The Economist, Oct 6th 2012, Charlemagne: Mysterious Mariano

     Mr Rajoy frustrates many with his prevarication over a fresh euro-zone bail-out, which now comes with a conditional promise from the European Central Bank (ECB) to help bring down Spain’s stifling borrowing costs.

3. A secret abuse in the exercise of a public office.
4. (law, historical, Ancient Rome) The collusion of an informer with the defendant, for the purpose of making a sham prosecution.
5. (law) A false or deceitful seeming to undertake a thing for the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowell to this entry?)

Related terms

• prevaricate
• prevaricator

Translations

See also

• lie
• equivocate

Further reading

• Prevarication in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Middle French

Noun

prevarication f (plural prevarications)

1. prevarication (deviation from what is right)

Descendants

• ? English: prevarication
• French: prévarication