"Beat Around the Bush"

[Dennis R. Preston]

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





>Sorry the writer had only a condensed version, but I must rise to the
>defense of my slang guru, Dr Robert L. Chapman and his Dictionary of
>American Slang: the 3rd edition (unabridged) shows (on p. 22 col. 2) "beat
>around (or about) the bush v phr middle 1500s To avoid speaking directly and
>precisely; evade; tergiversate." (Earlier edition gives substantially the
>same definition.)
>
>Bernie Kane
>word-finder


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