prevarication

Meanings

1. Evasion of the truth.
2. Deviation from what is right or correct.
3. A secret abuse in the exercise of a public office.
4. The collusion of an informer with the defendant, for the purpose of making a sham prosecution.
5. A false or deceitful seeming to undertake a thing for the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praevāricātiō (“collusion with an opponent; duplicity, deceit; violation of duty, transgression”, literally “stepping out of line”), from praevāricor (“to walk crookedly; go astray; transgress”) + -tās. The virtually obsolete sense of deviation or transgression may have been influenced by an earlier stage of borrowing via Middle English prevaricacioun, prevaricacion (“deviation from the law; transgression”) from Anglo-Norman prevaricaciun (“transgression, violation of correct conduct”).