the.com/pretense
The costume truth wears when it doesn't want to be recognized.
means A false show or claim put on to create an impression that isn't true.
from From Latin praetendere — 'prae' (before) plus 'tendere' (to stretch) — literally to stretch something out in front of you, like holding up a shield or an excuse. The sense drifted from 'put forward as a claim' to 'put forward falsely,' so pretense carries the ghost of that gesture: something stretched out front to screen what's really behind it.
- legal cousin
- pretense shows up in fraud law, under false pretenses
- not a lie
- a pretense is performed, not merely spoken
- social glue
- small talk runs almost entirely on polite pretense