Latin 'aequus' (equal) + 'vox' (voice) — something equivocal speaks with two equal voices, making its meaning ambiguous.
Open to more than one interpretation; ambiguous; uncertain or questionable in nature.
From Late Latin aequivocus (ambiguous, of equal voice), from Latin aequus (equal, level, just) + vox, vocis (voice, word, utterance). Latin aequus derives from PIE *h2eykw- (level, even), related to the idea of a flat, balanced surface. Vox traces to PIE *wekw- (to speak), the same root as Greek ēpos (word) and Sanskrit vak (speech). The compound aequivocus literally
In medieval logic, 'equivocation' was one of the classic logical fallacies: using a word with two meanings in the same argument, as if it had only one. 'A bank is a place for money. A riverbank is a bank. Therefore a riverbank is a place for money.' Aristotle identified this fallacy in his 'Sophistical Refutations,' and medieval logicians formalized it as 'fallacia aequivocationis.' The Jesuits were famously accused of 'mental equivocation' — giving technically true but deliberately misleading answers under oath.
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