pretend

Pronunciation

• IPA: /prɪˈtend/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English pretenden, borrowed from Old French pretendre (“to lay claim”) or directly borrowed from Latin praetendere (“to stretch in front, spread before; to put forward as an excuse, allege”),^[2][3][4][5] from prae “before” (see pre-) and tendere “to stretch”,^[2][3] from the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[2] See tend.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To claim or profess to have, to put oneself forward: about 1380 in the OED, probably 1382 in Wycliffe in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[6][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The main modern sense, to feign or put forward a false claim, is from about 1400, 1402 in Barnhart.^[2][3] The older sense, simply to lay claim to, lies behind the royal pretenders of English history in the 1690s;^[2] pretender meant one who intends something in 1591, a claimant from 1622 and a claimant to a throne from 1697, in Dryden.^[3] To make pretence intransitively is from 1526,^[3] and to make believe in play from 1865.^[2][6] In the 17th century pretend could also mean to court a woman, after a French sense.^[2] The noun, an act of pretending in imagination or play, is from 1888, from children's talk;^[2] as an adjective, “imaginary”, it dates from the early 20th century.^[7] Pretence and pretension are from the 15th and 17th centuries.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – to claim, profess.^[6][3]
• 1402 – to feign, claim falsely.^[3]
• 1526 – to make pretence.^[3]
• 1697 – pretender to a throne.^[3]
• 1865 – to make believe in play.^[2][6]
• 1888 – the noun, make-believe.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To act as if something is true when it is not; to feign.
2. To imagine as part of a game; to make believe: let's pretend we're pirates.
3. To claim falsely: he pretended to be a doctor.
4. (pretend to) To lay claim to a title, quality or skill.

Adjective

1. (informal) Imaginary; make-believe.

Word family

• pretended
• unpretended
• unpretending

Related words

• pretender
• pretense
• pretension
• pretentious
• pretence
• tend
• extend
• intend

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press