The Captain’s Log

Pontifications of The Great and Terrible Captain Cucamunga.

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:26:05 EST

Lie, Prevaricate, and Equivocate

To lie…
…is to utter a false statement.
To prevaricate…
…is to use ambiguous language to avoid telling the truth. Today, prevaricate is used interchangeably with equivocate, but prevaricate originally had a different denotation. To prevaricate was to split hairs, to nitpick, to interpret language differently from others to avoid telling the truth or to justify bad behavior.
To equivocate…
…is to use ambiguous language to avoid telling the truth.