Posing under false pretexts, or pretenses?
JUNE CASAGRANDE
Since I began writing this column, people in my office regularly turn
to me with language questions that crop up in the day-to-day business
of working at a newspaper. (Shh. Don’t tell them why that’s a bad
idea.)
I almost always answer, which is bad, because I’m usually guessing
and passing off the speculation as certainty. Hey, it’s their fault
for trusting me.
But I couldn’t even fake a decent answer to a recent
noodle-scratcher posed by a reporter here. A press release she
received reported that a contest winner was lured to the office where
he would receive his prize “on the pretext that he would be
participating in a final interview session for the award.”
Pretext? Shouldn’t it be pretense, my colleague asked.
“Uh, um, yeah. Pretense definitely sounds better,” is basically
what I said, unable to admit I was too clueless to take a position.
Whenever you hear that pseudo-certain waver in someone’s voice --
that little-girl-whistling-in-the-dark-to-assure-
herself-she’s-not-afraid voice -- run like mad to the nearest
dictionary because you can be sure that you’re not in good hands.
Webster’s New World College Dictionary put me in my place.
According to Webster’s, the words are very similar, but “pretext”
seems the better choice.
Pretext: “a false reason or motive put forth to hide a real one.”
The first few definitions for pretense seem to have more to do
with being pretentious, for example, “a claim, esp. an unsupported
one, as to some distinction or accomplishment.” The word I’ll use to
help me remember this is “poser.” Poser is how we cool people say
someone’s a phony or fraud. Hey, I even thought of a little mnemonic
device to help: “the poser is tense.” Kind of like I was during the
original conversation during which I posed as someone qualified to
speak on the subject. “The poser is tense because she’s afraid she’ll
be exposed as a poser.”
Only in the fifth definition for pretense do we get to the overlap
with pretext: “a false reason or plea; pretext.”
Speaking of phonies, I recently made the always-regrettable
mistake of watching television news and came across this little
doozy.
On a trailer promoting a segment on CBS Evening News on
professionals with fake academic credentials, big, bold letters
splattered across my TV warned of “phoney degrees.”
Phoney.
I would expect such a mistake from a little tiny news agency, say
a small newspaper with a staff of six reporters in some coastal
community. But the CBS Evening News? That’s pretty bad.
Technically, the dictionary does permit “phoney” as an alternate
spelling of “phony,” but come on.
I guess there are some posers up in the big leagues, too.
* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She
may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at
june.casagrande@latimes.com.
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