pretender

pretend +‎ -er

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈtɛndəɹ/

• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

pretender (plural pretenders)

1. One who pretends.
   1. (obsolete, rare) One who intends or purposes.
      • 1591, Percivall, Sp. Dict. :

        Pretensor, a pretender, he that purposeth.

      • 1598, Florio :

        Pretendente, a pretendent, a pretender, an intender, a meaner.

   2. One who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something; a claimant, candidate, or aspirant; now, one who makes baseless pretensions.
      • 1622, Mabbe, Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf 1.214:

        By how straight a Rule…must that Pretender carry himselfe, who is to saile thorow the sea of this world, hoping for a fortune from another mans hand?

      • ante 1631 (1640), Donne, Serm. 32.315:

        The sinister supplantations of pretenders to places in Court.

      • 1646, H. Lawrence, Comm. Angells 116:

        Every one is a pretender and a runner; but few carry the prize.

      • 1766, William Blackstone, chapter 14, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book II (Of the Rights of Things), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, OCLC 65350522, page 218:

        The issue of the eldest son excludes all other pretenders, as the son himself (if living) would have done.

      • 1780 May 25th, Johnson, Let. to Mrs. Thrale :

        A candidate for a school at Brewood in Staffordshire; to which, I think, there are seventeen pretenders.

      • 1845, Disraeli, Sybil 4.7:

        I would sooner gain five thousand pounds by restoring you to your rights, than fifty thousand in establishing any of these pretenders in their base assumptions.

      1. (obsolete) One who aspires to the hand of a woman in marriage; a suitor, a wooer.
         • 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher; William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, OCLC 1170464517, Act I, scene v, page 1:

           He, of the two pretenders, that best loves me.

         • ante 1699, Lady Halkett, Autobiog. 17, (Camden):

           An Earles daughter,…whose mother not allowing him to come as a pretender shee made apointmentt with him and mett him att her cousin’s howse.

         • 1728 (1732), Eliza Heywood, Mme. de Gomez’s Belle A. 2.235:

           It is not my design to dispose of Irene to the most noble, but most wealthy of the Pretenders to her Love.

      2. A claimant to a throne or the office of a ruler; orig. in a neutral sense, but now always applied to a claimant who is held to have no just title.
         • 1697, Dryden, Virg. Georg. 4.93:

           If intestine Broils allarm the Hive, (For two Pretenders oft for Empire strive).

         • 1708 March 11th, Anne Regina, The Queen’s Speech to both Houses, in The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons, volume IV: 1706–1713, London: Chandler (1742), § iv: “First Parliament of Great Britain”, page 92:

           I Think it necessary to acquaint you, that I have received Advices this Morning from Ostend, that the French Fleet sailed from Dunkirk, Tuesday at three in the Morning, Northward, with the Pretender on board; as also, that Sir George Byng had notice of it the same Day at ten: And he being very much superior to the Enemy both in Number and Strength, I make no question, but, by God’s Blessing, he will soon be able to give a good Account of them.

         • ante 1715 (1734), Burnet, Own Time 2.503:

           She [Q. Anne] also fixed a new Designation on the Pretended Prince of Wales, and called him the Pretender; he was so called in a new Set of Addresses…upon this occasion…made to the Queen.

         • 1745, P. C. Webb, Remarks on the Pretender’s Son’s Second Declaration
         • 1824 June, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 926803915, page 238:

           the provost’s enemies at the council-table of the burgh used to observe that he uttered there many a bold harangue against the Pretender, and in favour of King George and government, of which he dared not have pronounced a syllable in his own bedchamber

         • 1827 (1876), Hallam, Const. Hist. 3.16.223:

           The pretender…had friends in the tory government more sincere probably and zealous than [the earl of] Oxford.

         • 1845, S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref. 3.633:

           Wullenweber…turned to the nearest protestant pretender, Duke Christian, and offered him his assistance to obtain the crown.

         • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323, page 442:

           Every province…had its own Augustus. All these pretenders could not be rightful Emperors.

   3. One who pretends or lays claim to something; one who makes a profession, show, or assertion, esp. without adequate grounds, falsely, or with intent to deceive; a dissembler, deceiver, charlatan, hypocrite.
      • 1631, Massinger, Emperor East 2.1:

        A pretender To the art, I truly honour…your majesty’s opinion.

      • 1631, Massinger, Believe as You List 2.2:

        This false pretender To the correction of the law.

      • 1651, Hobbes, Leviath. 2.18.89:

        So evident a lye, even in the pretenders own consciences.

      • 1738, Swift, Pol. Conversat. Introd..45:

        It is not so easy an Acquirement as a few ignorant Pretenders may imagine.

      • 1782, William Cowper, “The Diverting History of John Gilpin, […]”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], published 1785, OCLC 228757725, page 492:

        That honour has been long The boast of mere pretenders to the name.

      • 1848 (1850), Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art 122:

        Simon, a Samaritan, a pretender to divine authority and supernatural powers.

      • 1871, Jowett, Plato 1.28:

        To distinguish the pretender in medicine from the true physician.

   4. A person who professes beliefs and opinions that they do not hold.

      Synonyms: dissembler, flip-flopper, hypocrite, phony; see also Thesaurus:deceiver

   5. A claimant to an abolished or already occupied throne.
      • 1844 January–December​, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “My Pedigree and Family.—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion.”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, OCLC 769792815, page 3:

        I presume that there is no gentleman in Europe that has not heard of the house of Barry of Barryogue, of the kingdom of Ireland, than which a more famous name is not to be found in Gwillim or D’Hozier; and though, as a man of the world, I have learned to despise heartily the claims of some pretenders to high birth who have no more genealogy than the lacquey who cleans my boots, […]

Borrowed from Latin praetendere, present active infinitive of praetendō.

pretender (first-person singular present pretendo, first-person singular preterite pretendín, past participle pretendido)

1. to pretend
2. first/third-person singular future subjunctive of pretender
3. first/third-person singular personal infinitive of pretender

Borrowed from Latin praetendere.

pretender (first-person singular present pretendo, first-person singular preterite pretendi, past participle pretendido)

1. to want
2. to pretend
3. to intend
4. to request
5. to aspire

• Pretender is a false friend, and does not mean pretend in the sense of to claim that or act as if something is different from what it actually is.

• pretenso
• pretensão

Borrowed from Latin praetendere, present active infinitive of praetendō.

• IPA^(key): /pɾetenˈdeɾ/ [pɾe.t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]
• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: pre‧ten‧der

pretender (first-person singular present pretendo, first-person singular preterite pretendí, past participle pretendido)

1. to intend, to aim (for/to)

   Juan pretende tener su casa propia en tres años.

   Juan intends to have his own house in three years.

2. to woo, to court

   Juan pretende a Fernanda porque él siempre le lleva rosas y chocolates

   Juan is courting Fernanda, so he always gives her roses and chocolates.

3. (Latin America, possibly nonstandard) to pretend (claim, allege)
   • 2015, Juliet Escoria, Matías Fleischmann, transl., Nube negra‎, Santiago: Los libros de la mujer rota, →ISBN:

     Estaba tan enojada esa noche cuando David llegó pero solo sonrió y miró y pretendió que todo estaba bien.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 2020, Selenis Leyva & Marizol Leyva, LM Editorial Services, transl., Mi hermana‎, New York: Bold Type Books, →ISBN:

     Es psicológicamente agotador pensar de esta manera, especialmente cuando se espera que ignoremos momentos como estos y pretendamos que no pasó nada o que nos levantemos al día siguiente y lo intentemos nuevamente.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • 2022 December 24, Etiqueta Negra, “"El Senado y el Fiscal" solo por TV Senado”, in El Líbero‎, Chile, archived from the original on 2022-12-26:

     Pero claro, rodeado un mal Presidente de malos ministros y peores asesores, no pretendamos que las cosas salgan bien y no sigan, como hasta ahora, de tumbo en tumbo.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

• With the exception of non-standard or dialectal use (see sense 3), pretender is a false friend, and does not mean pretend in the sense of to claim that or act as if something is different from what it actually is. The Spanish word for pretend in that sense is fingir.

• pretendiente
• pretencioso
• pretenso
• pretensión

• “pretender”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014