- 1
To equivocate is to avoid a clear yes or no by using words that can be heard two ways, so nobody can pin you down. Politicians get accused of this a lot. It is not exactly the same as lying — you may not have said a false fact — though actually people often feel cheated anyway, because they asked a straight question and you would not give a straight answer. The word is formal. In casual talk you might say someone is being vague, dodging the question, or talking in circles. The old idea behind it is “to call two things by the same name,” and that double naming became a way of slipping out of a corner.
含糊其辭、顧左右而言他（台灣也常說「打太極」）
組成Late Latin aequivocus, from Latin aequus (equal) + vocō (I call): to “call equally,” to use a word that can name two things at once. English took the verb through Medieval Latin.
同家族的字
- equivocationthe noun for this verb
- equivocalsame Latin pieces: equal + call
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
equivocateverb/ɪˈkwɪvəˌkeɪt/
- 1
To speak using double meaning; to speak ambiguously, unclearly or doubtfully, with intent to deceive; to vacillate in one's answers, responding with equivoques.
- Knock. Knock, knock. Who's there in th'other Deuils Name? Faith here's an Equiuocator, that could ſweare in both the Scales againſt eyther Scale, who committed Treaſon enough for Gods ſake, yet could not equiuocate to Heauen: oh come in, Equiuocator.
- All that Garnet had to say for him was that he supposed he meant to equivocate.
- 2
To render equivocal or ambiguous.
- He equivocated his vow by a mental reservation
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。