[General] Curiosity question on language.

[Andizzle]

I love the English language! I enjoy finding out the meanings of words I don't know, expanding my vocabulary and looking into the history of language, I find it fascinating!

There are, however, some questions I can't seem to "just Google"...
They come into my head every so often, so I just wanted to ask this one, as it popped in.

OK, here we go, I hope this makes sense:

Is there a word to describe someone who deliberately misinterprets things that someone says, in order to deflect attention from something or divert the conversation?

I was listening to a politician the other day on the radio and you could tell that, even though he understood what the presenter was asking him, he was deliberately picking up on faults in his speech or deflecting attention in anyway possible, whenever he could - using whatever he could - JUST to avoid answering the question (something I'm sure we've all heard politicians do many times before).. It's happened to me during arguments before too..

Right, that's me finished, I hope someone can help; my curiosity is killing me......my cat however, is fine... :-D

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forums, Andizzle.:-D

Politicians do a lot of prevaricating.

Does that hit the spot?

Rover

 

[emsr2d2]

I can't think of a word for the person, only for what he/she does: avoiding the question. However, I realise that doesn't specifically mean that the person picks up on the questioner's faults, just that they don't answer the question.

 

[Andizzle]

Welcome to the forums, Andizzle.:-D

Politicians do a lot of prevaricating.

Does that hit the spot?

Rover

Ooooh! I like that word! Excellent stuff! Thank you very much.. I'll be posting similar threads when I stuck with things like this... There may be another way to go about finding out words, like some sort of reverse dictionary, but I definitely now know this way is effective!

Thanks again...

 

[emsr2d2]

Ooooh! I like that word! Excellent stuff! Thank you very much.. I'll be posting similar threads when I am stuck with things like this. There may be another way to go about finding out words, like some sort of reverse dictionary, but I definitely now know this way is effective!

Thanks again...

There is indeed a reverse dictionary - here.

If you're interested in language and the history of words etc, I can recommend a book called "The Etymologicon". Fascinating stuff.

 

[SoothingDave]

Filibuster | Define Filibuster at Dictionary.com

Politicians are also known to filibuster, making long speeches to fill the time and delay action. It's a legislative procedure, but the term can also be stretched to any attempt to avoid answering questions by simply talking and talking without actually answering the question.