The verb form of the term hedge dates back at least to the 16th century. In Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Sir John Falstaff said, “I, I, I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of God on the left hand and hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fair to shuffle, to hedge and to lurch.” Falstaff was a vain, overweight, drunken liar. So it’s no surprise that he would equivocate. The term was first used in financial transactions, in the early 17th century, when “hedging o