history and etymology: Latin praevaricatus, past participle of praevaricari to act in collusion, literally, to straddle, from prae- + varicare to straddle, from varus bowlegged*
in an OED entry for prevaricate last modified in March 2022, only sense 3 is neither obsolete nor rare: to prevaricate now means either to be evasive/indecisive or – more usually – to delay action by being so
/ who knew?
even so, Garner places “prevaricate misused for procrastinate” at Stage 1 (rejected) on the Language Change Index*
20221005T2254Z*
*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts
!gb garner prevaricate