{"id":7454,"date":"2026-10-30T23:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T23:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7454"},"modified":"2026-10-30T23:10:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T23:10:47","slug":"word-of-the-day-subterfuge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2026\/10\/30\/word-of-the-day-subterfuge-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Subterfuge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of the Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary<\/a>), is subterfuge<\/em>. Pronounced \/ \u02c8s\u028cb t\u0259r\u02ccfjud\u0292 \/, with a secondary stress on the third syllable, this noun means \u201can artifice or expedient used to evade a rule, escape a consequence, hide something\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/subterfuge<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its Did You Know section, Merriam-Webster says, \u201cThough subterfuge<\/em> is a synonym of deception<\/em>, fraud<\/em>, double-dealing<\/em>, and trickery<\/em>, there\u2019s nothing tricky about the word\u2019s etymology. English borrowed the word with its meaning from the Late Latin noun subterfugium<\/em>, which in turn comes from the Latin verb subterfugere<\/em>, meaning \u2018to escape, evade.\u2019 That word combines the prefix subter-<\/em>, meaning \u2018secretly\u2019 (from the adverb subter<\/em>, meaning \u2018underneath\u2019) with the verb fugere<\/em>, which means \u2018to flee\u2019 and which is also the source of words such as fugitive<\/em> and refuge<\/em>, among others\u201d (https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/subterfuge<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word appears in English in the \u201c1570s, from French subterfuge<\/em> (14c.) or directly from Medieval Latin subterfugium<\/em> \u2018an evasion,\u2019 from Latin subterfugere<\/em> \u2018to evade, escape, flee by stealth,\u2019 from subter<\/em> \u2018beneath, below;\u2019 in compounds \u2018secretly\u2019 (from PIE *sup-ter-<\/em>, comparative form of *(s)up-<\/em>; see sub-<\/strong>) + fugere<\/em> \u2018flee\u2019 (see fugitive<\/strong> (adj.)).
\u201cIn English subter-<\/em> sometimes is a word-forming element, \u2018under, below, less than,\u2019 in opposition to super-<\/strong>. Compare subterfluous<\/em> \u2018running under water\u2019 (1650s); subterconscious<\/em> (adj.), 1856; subternatural<\/em> \u2018subnormal\u2019 (1870); subterhuman<\/em> (1833)\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/subterfuge<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to On This Day, on this date in 1679, \u201cThe Meal-Tub Plot, a Catholic scheme to falsely implicate Presbyterians in a conspiracy against James, Duke of York, the future James II of England, is exposed by the discovery of forged evidence hidden in a meal tub\u201d (https:\/\/www.onthisday.com\/events\/october\/29<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a tough one. I\u2019m pretty sure that On This Day has the substance incorrect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Dangerfield was a rascal in the latter half of the seventeenth century. He ran away from home at age 14, stealing money and horses from his own father, and went to London where he engaged in a life of crime. His first really notable action was to try \u201cto involve James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth<\/a> and others by concocting information about a Presbyterian<\/a> plot against the throne\u201d (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Dangerfield<\/a>). The idea was that there was a conspiracy of Presbyterians who wanted to kill King Charles II and replace the monarchy with a republic. The idea was probably not all that farfetched since the Interregnum, during which the Puritans had taken over the government and executed Charles I, had occurred only 30 or so years before. However, the plot failed to gain any traction. The main perpetrator, Titus Oates, tried to convince the Privy Council that the Roman Catholics were plotting to kill Charles. But Oates was soon discredited. However, \u201cOates also made a sworn deposition of his \u2018evidence\u2019 (Sept. 28, 1678) to a Westminster justice of the peace, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, and when the latter was found murdered in October, a popular panic was engendered. Ramifications of the plot were imagined everywhere, and in all about 35 innocent people were executed\u201d (https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Popish-Plot<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, Thomas Dangerfield was involved in the Meal Tub Plot. Dangerfield spent a little time in prison, and at first he was visited by one Lady Powis. But she realized that he was a rascal, so she stopped visiting, and he got mad. \u201cDangerfield maintained the story that he had been released from prison through the assistance of Powis and [Elizabeth] Cellier on the condition that he assassinate the king, Lord Shaftesbury, and others. He further claimed that he was to be involved in the fabrication of false plots set to be imposed on people known to be unfavourable to the Catholic cause. One of these conspiracies was to be based on a document which, he alleged, was hidden in a meal tub in Cellier’s house. A search was made, and the paper in question was found in a meal tub. It charged with treason most of the leading Protestants, including the king’s natural son, the Duke of Monmouth, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and William Waller, who was the very official charged with the search. Lady Powis and Mrs. Cellier were arrested, as were some other Catholics, among them the Earl of Castlemaine\u201d (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Elizabeth_Cellier<\/a>). Cellier was a Catholic midwife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cellier was charged with treason and put on trial. \u201cShe was charged with high treason, but the only evidence against her was that of Dangerfield himself, and she had little difficulty in proving him a witness entirely unworthy of credence \u2013 the Lord Chief Justice, William Scroggs, had already begun instructing juries to ignore the evidence of “so notorious a villain”.[4] Cellier was found not guilty, and Dangerfield himself was arrested instead on account of a felony, for which he had been previously outlawed. After Cellier’s acquittal, she published a brief relation of the whole affair under the title of Malice Defeated in 1680. Dangerfield, while undergoing a public whipping in 1685, was accidentally killed in a fight with a barrister, Robert Francis, who, to the surprise of the general public, was hanged for murder\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so I have to say that the story is a little confusing, but I think someone should write a detailed book about it, or maybe a novel. A guy named Joseph Moser wrote a 20-page booklet or pamphlet called The Meal-tub Plot; or, Remarks Upon the Powder tax. By a Barber<\/em> back in 1795, and one can get a print version of it for a lot of money. But we need something more recent, and maybe a movie to go along with it. Something along the lines of Charles Nicholl\u2019s book The Reckoning<\/em>, about the murder of Christopher Marlowe, a book which I highly recommend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think such a book and movie would do very well because we love stories about subterfuge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image is by \u201cWilliam Dent, active 1784-1793, The Battle of Whigs, or, The Meal-tub Plot discovered, 1791. Etching with watercolor on laid paper\u201d (https:\/\/www.alamy.com\/william-dent-active-17841793-the-battle-of-whigs-or-the-meal-tub-plot-discovered-1791-etching-with-watercolor-on-laid-paper-dinner-food-meal-image398425822.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of the Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary), is subterfuge. Pronounced \/ \u02c8s\u028cb t\u0259r\u02ccfjud\u0292 \/, with a secondary stress on the third syllable, this noun means \u201can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[238,395,284,1033,664],"class_list":["post-7454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-linguistics","tag-meal-tub-plot","tag-subterfuge","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7456,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7454\/revisions\/7456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}