Pronounced “ter-JIV-er-sate”, it means “to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.”
The word’s origins come from the Latin for “to turn one’s back”. Though not in common usage, it was utilized by The Times of London in August to describe the changing attitudes of stock markets.According to Schwartz, the team considered other words, including “occupy”, “austerity”, “jobs” (both the noun and the person), “zugzwang” and “insidious”.However, though they may have tergiversated during their discussions, there will be no more tergiversation on the matter. It’s Dictionary.com’s Word of The Year 2011.
See: The Huffington Post
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It just sounds like Spanglish to me ("tergiversar" is quite a common Spanish word).
Quite how a vocabulary item "not in common usage" (if not downright recondite) can be voted "word of the year" is a mystery to me. It would be interesting to know the team's criteria.
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Also I'm not keen on borrowing German words (zugzwang) when there's a plethora of available Engli... See more
Also I'm not keen on borrowing German words (zugzwang) when there's a plethora of available English options (which are often more expressive) - Catch 22, no-win situation, lose-lose situation and more... I think the kind of people doing this unnecessary borrowing are just trying to sound more intelligent than they really are - or lack the intelligence or will to search their own lexicon. ▲ Collapse
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From the Dictionary.com Web site:
In late October, we asked our Facebook fans which method of selection they preferred...
I stopped reading right there...the biggest tergiversaters are certainly from that crowd...
(Now, all you slings and arrows, commence firing!)
[Edited at 2011-12-02 08:17 GMT]
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... I think the kind of people doing this unnecessary borrowing are just trying to sound more intelligent than they really are - or lack the intelligence or will to search their own lexicon.
Me too, but didn't want to raise any hackles unduly. The choice of "tergiversate" is summed up for me by the lovely Spanish word "rebuscadisima" (extremely contrived). And as for "zugzwang", I looked it up yesterday and I've already forgotten what it meant. It sounds like a deviant act committted on a train...
Then again, I'd be pushed to come up with a suggestion for a word of the year of my own. I may come back to this later if anything amusing springs to mind.
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Doesn't Susie Dent usually do a (more sensible) "Words of the Year"?
...According to Oxford dictionaries, the 2011 word of the... See more
Doesn't Susie Dent usually do a (more sensible) "Words of the Year"?
...According to Oxford dictionaries, the 2011 word of the year is "squeezed middle":
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/squeezed-middle/ ▲ Collapse
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same spelling, is a very common Romanian word and it means ”delayed”.
[Edited at 2011-12-03 18:24 GMT]
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