"Beat Around the Bush"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Huh! Def. #2 sounds just like it to me. Hell, us guys from Louisville even
know the word "equivocate" (but not when we were three or four).

dInIs

>On Wed, 29 Mar 2000 19:57:43 -0500 "Dennis R. Preston"
><preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU> writes:
>>Holy Makrel!
>>
>>Just what I needed. A defination of "beat around the bush" (which I've
>>said since I was three or four) as "tergiversate," which I can
>morphologize
>>out but have never heard nor said. No wonder he was your guru. He knew
>>swell words.
>>
>>dInIs
>>
>My desk dictionary says tergiversate:  1.  To become a renegade:
>apostatize
>(a more natural meaning of "turn one's back?")  2.  to use subterfuges:
>equivocate.
>
>tergiversation:  1.  desertion of a cause, party, or faith
>                            2.  evasions of a straightforward action or
>clear-cut statement:
>                equivocation.
>
>It doesn't exactly sound like "beat around the bush."
>
>I'll admit I hadn't heard of "bodega" except in the movie "The Birds"
>which was set in
>Bodega Bay, California.


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736