pretext

English

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 Thesaurus:pretext

Translations

false, contrived or assumed purpose

• Armenian: պատրվակ (hy) (patrvak)
• Catalan: pretext m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 借口 (zh) (jièkǒu)

• Czech: záminka (cs) f
• Danish: påskud (da) n
• Dutch: voorwendsel (nl) n, drogreden (nl) f, dekmantel (nl) m, schijnreden f, pretext (nl) 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
• Spanish: pretexto (es) m
• Swedish: svepskäl (sv) n, undanflykt (sv) c, förevändning (sv) c

Verb

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

Further reading

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