Tergiversation

Research

The act of making contradictory statements or avoiding commitment to a clear position; excessive hedging that leaves an argument with no distinguishable claim — in academic writing, a fault reviewers read as evasion, not appropriate caution.

Sources

1. Merriam-Webster — tergiversation merriam-webster.com accessed 17 September 2026

Merriam-Webster gives two senses: “evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement : equivocation”, and “desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith”. The Latin tergiversari, to show reluctance, is built from tergum, back, and versare, to turn — turning one’s back. First recorded 1570. The second sense is stronger than most users of the word intend: it describes defection, not merely waffling.

Merriam-Webster is cited here as the dictionary of record. Where a lexicon entry defines a word rather than a position, a dictionary is the primary source for it — there is no other body with standing over what a word means. The reading of how the term is used in research writing, above, is this lexicon’s own.

Related terms

• Abbreviation
• Abstract
• Abstraction
• Academic Database
• Analysis
• Annotation

Rewritten from a truncated AJG archive entry, August 2026.