Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tergiversation

Tergiversation , noun

[Latin tergiversario: compare French tergiversation.]

1.
The act of tergiversating; a shifting; shift; subterfuge; evasion.
Writing is to be preferred before verbal conferences, as being freer from passions and tergiversations. — Abp. Bramhall
2.
Fickleness of conduct; inconstancy; change.
The colonel, after all his tergiversations, lost his life in the king's service. — Clarendon