pretendant

See also: prétendant

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle French pretendant, from the present participle of pretendre (“to claim”).[1] By surface analysis, pretend +‎ -ant.

Noun

pretendant (plural pretendants)

  1. (dated) A pretender; a claimant.
  2. (obsolete) A suitor.
    • 1661, [Samuel Pordage], “The Historie of Euripedes”, in Eliana. A New Romance: Formed by an English Hand., London: […] T[homas] R[oycroft] for Peter Dring […], →OCLC, page 21:
      Bur at laſt his fight being as odious to me, as his company was troubleſome, I let him know in very ſharp terms how much I hated him, bidding him never imagine or think of obtaining me, for he ſhould ſooner bring the heavens and earth together than obtain my love, commanding him to avoid my ſight. This ſudden mordacity ſtarted my pretendant, rebating his love, it ſuſcicated his paſſion, and with a truculent countenance he told me, that ere long I ſhould repent of my peeviſhneſs, and be glad to accept of that honour which now I deſpiſ’d.
    • 1803 July 25, Hester Lynch Thrale, “To Mr Piozzi 25: July 1803—Brynbella”, in Katharine C[anby] Balderston, editor, Thraliana: The Diary of Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale (Later Mrs. Piozzi), 1776–1809, volume II (1784–1809), Oxford, Oxfordshire: At the Clarendon Press, published 1942, →OCLC, page 1041:
      Thelwall Salusbury too—then Vicar of Offley, my Cousin, my Pretendant—& my Enemy—of Course, I see today among the Black List in our Newspaper.
    • 1883, William D[ean] Howells, chapter XXI, in A Woman’s Reason: A Novel, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC, page 459:
      He would not be serious about Lord Rainford; he made her share in the good-natured slight with which husband and wife always talk over the sorrows of unlucky pretendants. He professed to find something much more admirable in Kimball’s quiet acceptance of the loss he had incurred through Helen: that, he said, was fine, for Kimball was supported by no sentimental considerations, and had no money to back his delicacy.

Adjective

pretendant (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Claiming to be someone or something; having a claim.

References

  1. ^ “pretendant, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
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