Where does “pretend” come from?
Pretend comes from Middle French pretendre, from Latin praetendere meaning to stretch forth or allege, derived from tendere meaning to stretch and teneo meaning to hold, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European per-.
pretend (English): To claim, to allege, especially when falsely or...
Definitions
- To claim, to allege, especially when falsely or...
Ancestry of “pretend”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anglo-Norman | pretendre | to claim |
| 2 | Latin | praetendere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 3 | Latin | praetendo | I stretch forth or forward; I extend; I spread... |
| 4 | Latin | tendo | I stretch, stretch out, distend, extend; I... |
| 5 | Latin | tentus | stretched; stretched out; extended; distended;... |
| 6 | Latin | teneō | to hold, have; to grasp |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | tenēō | to hold |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ten- | to stretch, to extend |