From even my early years, I can remember the phrase, little white lie. It's always something slight, as a misguidance, often made by parents to their children, either to help them build imagination or to keep them out of the chocolate hidden in the fridge. Not that I have any experience with that at all, haha!
As we grow, we learn that the best way to lie is to tell as much of the truth as possible and prevaricate the rest of the story. Oftentimes, this is then used to change the subject in some way or remove the attention at least a little.
Prevaricate | prɪˈver.ə.keɪt: verb: to avoid telling the truth or saying exactly what you think
When I told my husband what this word meant, he looked at me quizzically and said, "So, it means to lie. Why not just use lie?"
Well, yes, it means to lie. But to prevaricate means to deviate, not completely deceive. As Merriam-Webster goes on to explain, it is designed to cushion the blunt format of a lie, often by causing some sort of confusion or quibbling about the story. It's not as bad as an outright lie, but can be worse than a simple fib. And that is the beauty of the English language.
Prevaricate | pri-ˈver-ə-ˌkāt: verb: to deviate from the truth, equivocate
I first found this word in my most recent read, Wind Rider, which I am now - sadly - most of the way through. I had read it a couple of times, not completely sure what it meant, and then decided to do some research. After drawing on my resources, the scenes this word was used in made much more sense. It wasn't entirely a lie, but it was meant to soften the bluntness of the deceit. These little fibs did well to keep the focus off of the most important topics, though not entirely.
And, as I told my husband, no one wants to read said a thousand times in the same book. There's so much more than said out there, and it's nice to see a release in dialogue every now and then.
"You killed a Flyer."
"Well, I had the help of powerful hooves," River prevaricated. "And Anjo and I are going to start practicing spear tossing - right away!"
Honestly, the Wind Riders have become my absolute favorite culture in the Tales of a New World series. I knew I would love them because of my adoration of horses, but there is just something about the particular bond they have to their horses that seems to speak to me.
How do you think you would use prevaricated? Do you agree with my husband and think the term, lie, is just simpler? What other words would you have used here? Let me know all that and more, and until tomorrow, happy reading!
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