Thing Not To Do Today: palter with someone.

 This word is most usually encountered in a historical novel, when some authority figure thunders Do not palter with me! when he fails to get his own way.

As authority figures in fiction are often baddies, this is great fun. We see him (or her (other genders are usually not available in a historical novel)) showing weakness in anger.

To palter means to act, or, especially, to speak, insincerely. It might mean to try to fool someone by wriggling away from an agreement. Sometimes it might mean to haggle, though not over anything as straightforward as money.

Nowadays someone might say stop messing me about, but that doesn't have nearly the same magnificent ring to it.

The Word Den feels some nostalgia for the days when baddies had beautiful clothes, an education, and a vocabulary to match.

Their place, though, is strictly in fiction.

Word To Use Today: palter. This word appeared in English in the 1500s. It started off meaning to speak indistinctly, and then it began to mean to speak of trifling things. Then it moved in meaning to speaking insincerely, and then to describe a deliberate attempt to mislead. No one knows from it came from before it was English.