Dictionary.com Crowns the 2011 Word of the Year

Dictionary.com crowned the word "tergiversate" as Word of the Year in 2011.

According to Huffington Post, a group of lexicographers, a panel of editors and others at Dictionary.com chose the verb because it "defines the spirit of 2011." 

Tergiversate means "to change repeatedly one's attitudes or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate." The example Dictionary.com gives is: "The stock market, politicians and even public opinion polls have tergiversated all year long." 

The word derives from the Latin word "vertere," to turn. It is pronounced tur-ji-ver-seyt. 

Tergiversate was chosen over words such as "occupy" and "winning," but Dictionary.com says these words will be on many selections in December. 

Although obscure, the word has been used in articles writen in The Times of London, and the Baltimore Sun picked tergiversation as its word of the week.