pretext

English

Wikipedia ^en

Etymology

From French prétexte, 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”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Noun

pretext ‎(plural pretexts)

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

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

   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club^[1]:

     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.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:pretext

Translations

false, contrived or assumed purpose

• Catalan: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 借口 (zh) ‎(jièkǒu)

• Czech: záminka (cs) f
• Danish: påskud (da) n
• Dutch: voorwendsel n, drogreden (nl) f, dekmantel (nl) m, schijnreden f, pretext m
• Finnish: tekosyy (fi), veruke (fi)
• French: prétexte (fr)
• German: Vorwand (de) m, Deckmantel m, fadenscheinige Begründung f, Ausrede (de) f, Scheingrund m, Schein (de) m, Ausflucht (de) f, Prätext m, angeblicher Grund m, vorgespiegelter Grund m
• Greek:

  Ancient: σκῆψις f ‎(skêpsis)

• Hungarian: ürügy (hu), kifogás (hu)
• Icelandic: yfirskin n
• Italian: pretesto (it) m, scusante (it) f

• Maori: takunga, takutakunga, takunetanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: påskudd (no) n, påskott n

  Nynorsk: påskott n, påskot n

• Polish: wymówka (pl) f, pretekst (pl) m
• Portuguese: pretexto (pt) m
• Russian: по́вод (ru) m ‎(póvod), предло́г (ru) m ‎(predlóg)
• Scottish Gaelic: leisgeul m
• Serbo-Croatian: izgovor (sh), izlika
• Sicilian: scaciuni f
• Swedish: svepskäl (sv) n, undanflykt c, förevändning (sv) c

Verb

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.

Synonyms

• blag (UK)

Translations

employ a pretext

• German: etwas vorgeben, einen Vorwand verwenden, etwas vorschützen, etwas vorspiegeln, so tun, als ob

• Hebrew: אמתלה (he) ‎(amátlah)
• Maori: whakataruna

See also

• Social engineering on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Social engineering

External links

• pretext in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• pretext in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911