The story
- Latin · borrowed frompraevāricātus
- English todayprevaricate
Borrowed from Latin praevāricātus, perfect active participle of praevāricor (“to walk crookedly; to play a false or double part”), from prae- + vāricō (“to stand with feet apart, straddle”), from vāricus (“with feet spread apart”); see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.