Today’s word of the day, courtesy of Words Coach (https://www.wordscoach.com/dictionary), is tergiversate. Tergiversate is pronounced / ˈtɜr dʒɪ vərˌseɪt /, with a soft g as in George rather than a hard g as in give, and with, surprisingly, the emphasis on the first instead of on the second syllable, but with a secondary emphasis on the fourth syllable (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tergiversate). It’s a verb that means “to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject” (ibid.). Merriam-Webster defines it as “to engage in tergiversation.” That seems circular, but there is a reason.

Etymonline.com says that tergiversate appears in the language in the “1650s, a back-formation from tergiversation, or else from Latin tergiversatus, past participle of tergiversari ‘be evasive,’ literally ‘to turn one’s back,’ from tergum ‘the back’ (of unknown origin) + versare ‘to spin, turn,’ frequentative of vertere ‘to turn’ (from PIE root *wer- (2) ‘to turn, bend’)” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=tergiversate). We looked at backformation in the June 2 Amalgamate entry, so if you are interested in a reminder, you can look that up. Frequentative refers to “a frequentative form (abbreviated FREQ or FR) of a word indicates repeated action” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequentative). “The frequentative is no longer productive in English, unlike in some language groups, such as Finno-Ugric, Balto-Slavic, and Turkic” (ibid.). And, “In linguistics, productivity is the degree to which speakers of a language use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation. It compares grammatical processes that are in frequent use to less frequently used ones that tend towards lexicalization. Generally the test of productivity concerns identifying which grammatical forms would be used in the coining of new words: these will tend to only be converted to other forms using productive processes” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_(linguistics)). The point is that we no longer, in English, create new words to indicate the frequentative.

The point about the backformation is relevant because when we look at Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary, the word tergiversate does not appear but tergiversation does, meaning “Shift; subterfuge; evasion” or “Change; fickleness” (https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=tergiversation).

And M-W’s etymology says that the word appears in English in the 1590s, though the rest of the etymology is the same. M-W does not point out that the origin of tergum is unknown. Nevertheless, tergum is used in anatomy meaning a part of the back.

On this date in 1215, according to the On This Day website (https://www.onthisday.com/events/june/15), “King John of England signs the Magna Carta at Runnymede near Windsor in Surrey, limiting royal authority and establishing the principle that the king and his government are not above the law.”

John (1166-1216) was the youngest son of Henry II, Plantagenet, and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his father’s favorite. “Henry’s plan (1173) to assign to John, his favourite son (whom he had nicknamed Lackland), extensive lands upon his marriage with the daughter of Humbert III, count of Maurienne (Savoy), was defeated by the rebellion the proposal provoked among John’s elder brothers. Various provisions were made for him in England (1174–76), including the succession to the earldom of Gloucester. He was also granted the lordship of Ireland (1177), which he visited from April to late 1185, committing youthful political indiscretions from which he acquired a reputation for reckless irresponsibility. Henry’s continued favour to him contributed to the rebellion of his eldest surviving son, Richard I (later called Coeur de Lion), in June 1189. For obscure reasons, John deserted Henry for Richard” (https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-king-of-England).

His older brother Richard became king upon the death of Henry II, becoming Richard I. He chose to go on a crusade, and on his way back he was taken hostage in Germany and held for ransom. In what he probably thought was a clever move, John decided to not pay the ransom and thought he could, in alliance with Philip II of France, take over Richard’s throne. But Richard got away and came back to England, and John’s reputation plummeted even further. As a side note, this is the period of English history that is portrayed in the Robin Hood legend. Prince John, who along with the Sheriff of Nottingham is the villain of the legend, is this same John. And John was very fond of imposing taxes because he was, all-in-all, an incompetent steward and later an incompetent king. It was the tax money that Robin Hood stole to give back to the people who were being overtaxed.

Richard died in 1199, and John was crowned a month later. It took a bit longer for John to gain control of Henry II’s French properties, Anjou, Aquitaine, etc. John then got himself into a war with Philip II of France; he did this by having his marriage annulled so that he could marry Isabella of Angoulême and become the heir of Angoulême (https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-king-of-England). The war with Philip led to the loss of all the lands that England had owned from the time of William the Conqueror, except for Calais. The war also drained the treasury, causing John to increase the taxes even more.

John also had a big fight with the Church and was excommunicated in 1208. The issue was over what John perceived as his right to choose the Archbishop of Canterbury when the previous Archbishop died. That division was settled by 1213, but in the meantime, because of unfilled appointments, John had taken a large sum of money from the Church (ibid.).

The barons of England also had had their fill of John, and by 1212, there was even a plot to depose or murder him. Eventually, there was open rebellion, and in May of 1515, there was open civil war. When the city of London took sides with the barons, John had to negotiate, and he eventually signed the Magna Carta. “Research by Victorian historians showed that the original 1215 charter had concerned the medieval relationship between the monarch and the barons, and not ordinary subjects. The majority of historians now see the interpretation of the charter as a unique and early charter of universal legal rights as a myth that was created centuries later” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta).

Unfortunately, King John asked the Pope to have the treaty annulled, and the Pope agreed. John then decided that he did not need to follow the barons’ demands as listed in the charter, and that led to another war with the barons. “The armed conflict swayed this way and that for months. John was in East Anglia again in October and passed through the town of Bishop’s Lynn (now King’s Lynn) on the south side of the Wash. His baggage train got trapped in quicksands and the incoming tide swept away carts, men and draught animals. Among the possessions lost were things John took with him everywhere, including, according to some chroniclers, sacred relics and other precious treasures. The English crown jewels certainly disappeared at about this time” (https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/death-king-john). John got dysentery, and he died on October 18 or 19 of 1216.

King John has gone down in history as one of the worst kings and biggest losers in English history. He might have lived considerably longer (and not lost the crown jewels) if he had not tergiversated.

The image today is a “19th-century recreation of King John signing the Magna Carta” (https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/on-the-trail-of-king-john-before-and-after-the-signing-of-magna-carta).