Subterfuge is a concept derived from the Latin subterfugium . The term refers to an excuse or a way out that allows one to avoid a situation or escape from it.
For example: "The company's call for a dialogue with union leaders is nothing more than a subterfuge to continue delaying the payment of salaries" , "Politicians are always looking for subterfuges to avoid reducing public spending" , "The change "The name of the entity was a subterfuge to mislead creditors ."
A subterfuge is usually a deception , a ruse , or a ruse . In the three previous examples we can verify these nuances. Firstly, we have the typical case of a company that does not respect the rights of its workers, one of the most obvious being the payment of their salaries. Faced with a series of complaints and denunciations with the union, the leaders find themselves between a rock and a hard place but, instead of fulfilling their obligations legally and honestly, they decide to call a meeting to "buy time."
The second example tells us about a group of political leaders who have no interest in reducing the public budget and that is why they seek by all means a way out, a way to evade this obligation. The last one presents us with a situation in which a company changes its name to try to save itself from paying its debts.
Suppose that, in a certain city, commercial premises are prohibited from selling alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m. Since the regulations say nothing about the distribution of drinks, there are those who resort to subterfuge and continue with marketing, but selling the products online and by telephone (that is, not in an establishment) and delivering them at home.
Take the case of the Constitution of a country that prevents a president from running for re-election. However, the law does not make it impossible for the president to run as vice president. Thus, a head of state announces that he will be a candidate for vice president. Once the formula that comprises it is elected, the president decides to resign and in this way the vice president (that is, the one who had already held the presidency in the previous period) assumes power again. Subterfuge allows this person to avoid constitutional conditions and remain in charge of the Executive Branch of his nation.
Taking these practical examples into account, we can proceed to list some of its most common synonyms to appreciate several of its semantic nuances. For example, let's take a look at the following: escape, evasion, apology, pretext, excuse , dissimulation, trickery , allegation, evasion, departure, evasion and falsehood . Other ways in which subterfuge can be understood, and which the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy points out, are "artificial excuse" and, as part of the definition of the term efuge , "resource to overcome an obstacle."
Let's think about the ideas raised in the last two examples: the merchants who take advantage of the lack of precision in a law to continue selling an item in a prohibited time slot, and the president who manages to govern for two terms. beyond the fact that the Constitution of your country does not allow it. In both cases, these are very well-elaborated and coldly calculated plans, meaning that they can be described with the adjective artificial , used in the previous paragraph.
These loopholes allow them to make contrived excuses to continue with their plans beyond the rules. This does not happen spontaneously or naturally, but in order for us to consider it a subterfuge, it must be carried out in cold blood, with great skill and millimeter work.