pretext

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pretext

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From Latin praetextum (“an ornament, etc., wrought in front, a pretense”), neuter of praetextus, past participle of praetexere (“to weave before, fringe or border, allege”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːtɛkst/

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• Rhymes: -iːtɛkst
• Hyphenation: pre‧text

pretext (plural pretexts)

1. A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pretext

   The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.

   • 1598, Beniamin Ionson , “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. ”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: Will Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 21:

     hey would ſay that I had quarrell'd / My brother purpoſely, thereby to finde / An apt pretext, to baniſh them my houſe.

   • 1834, L E L, chapter VII, in Francesca Carrara.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 69:

     "After all," said the Chevalier, "these portraits—Madame de I'Hôpital's fortune-telling—the pleasure we take in a lover or a physician—may all be referred to the same cause,—we do so enjoy talking about ourselves; and yet we feel some sort of excuse necessary. It must be admitted, that we are ready in pretexts."

   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell , Animal Farm , London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

     On every kind of pretext she would run away from work

   • 1996, Jacques Gernet, translated by J. R. Foster and Charles Hartman, A History of Chinese Civilization‎, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 580:

     The smallest incidents were to serve as pretexts for demonstrations of force and for demands for indemnities and reparations which increased China's subjection.

   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “The Simpsons (Classic): ‘New Kid on the Block’ ”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 18 September 2020:

     When that metaphor proves untenable, he switches to insisting that women are like beer but that’s mainly as a pretext to drink until he passes out in a father-son bonding haze.

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Pretexting

Wikipedia

pretext (third-person singular simple present pretexts, present participle pretexting, simple past and past participle pretexted)

1. To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.

   The spy obtained his phone records using possibly-illegal pretexting methods.

   • 1903 September 28, Henry James, The Ambassadors, London: Methuen & Co. , →OCLC:

     the something in the air of these establishments; the vibration of the vast, strange life of the town; the influence of the types, the performers, concocting their messages; the little prompt Paris women arranging, pretexting goodness knew what, driving the dreadful needle-pointed public pen at the dreadful sand-strewn public table

   • 1970 August 12 , John Womack, Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution‎, New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 261:

     Not all the surviving veteran chiefs would actually fight. Some remained nominally in the resistance but in practice delayed at their bases, pretexting a lack of ammunition for their uncertain inertia.

• blag (UK)

• Social engineering on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “pretext”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “pretext”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Borrowed from French prétexte.

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pretext n (plural pretexte)

1. pretext

• prætext (archaic)

Borrowed from Latin praetextum. First attested in 1617.

pretext c

1. (archaic) pretext

   Synonyms: förevändning, svepskäl, täckmantel, undanflykt

   • 1705 September 6, Robert Petre (the younger), edited by August Quennerstedt, Robert Petrés dagbok ifrån år 1702 till slaget vid Pultava (diary), published 1901, page 83:

     om deri skulle finnas något gewehr och amunition, som war emoth accord, men under prætext der af togz bårt, wad dem anstod och blänkte för deras ögon,

     if there should be any rifle and ammunition therein, who were against accord, but under the pretext of which was taken away, what suited them and shone before their eyes,

   • 1897 December 7, August Strindberg, edited by Torsten Eklund, August Strindbergs brev. 12. December 1896–augusti 1898 (letter), Till Emil Kléen, page 231:

     Skalden, hvilken har journalismen som näringsfång borde medan han är jemförelsevis ung göra en studieresa till Europens hufvudstad, Paris; t.ex. under pretext studera journalism och telegrambyråkratism.

     The poet, who has journalism as a livelihood, while he is comparatively young, should make a study trip to the capital of Europe, Paris; for example under the pretext of studying journalism and telegram bureaucracy.