Amuse-bouche:

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Today’s Wonderful Word: “tergiversation.”

Definition: The act of abandoning something or someone, of changing sides; desertion.

Alternate definition: The act of evading any clear course of action or speech, of being deliberately ambiguous; equivocation.

Etymology: The verb “tergiversate” was recorded in English around the mid-17th century, but the noun form was in use a century before. In Latin, the root “tergiversat-” described something done “with one’s back turned,” from the verb “tergiversari.”

Etymology continued: The ancient Romans might have used “tergiversari” in a more literal body-turning sense, but by the time the noun “tergiversation” was in English, it was used for metaphorical back-turning, or betrayal. Even when it isn’t quite so dramatic as desertion, tergiversation can still be waffling back and forth or acting deliberately ambiguous instead of choosing a clear side.

Example:

“I can’t decide if I want to go on the group trip, so I need to keep up the tergiversation until I make up my mind.”

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Garden path sentences are going somewhere until they aren’t. You hear them and wonder how you could have been so foolish as to have trusted them.

Here are some examples from Merriam Webster.

1. The old man the boat.
   • (The boat is manned by the elderly.)
2. The prime number few.
   • (People who are exceptional are few in number.)
3. The man who hunts ducks out on Tuesday.
   • (The man ducks out of his responsibilities on Tuesday.)
4. The woman whistling tunes pianos.
   • (The woman, who is whistling, also tunes pianos.)

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More examples:

The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi.

The horse raced past the barn fell.

The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.

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Answer to Saturday’s riddle:

“U”.

Explanation: The letter “U” completes the palindrome.

using is e desist is i visits is e design is u