"Beat Around the Bush"

[A. Maberry]

I'm with dInIs on this one. I thought I knew a word or two, but this one
sure escaped my notice. From now on I'm going to use it every chance I
get!

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> 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
>