for the (pretty) new word files...

[Baker, John]

        Here's a Watergate-era use, quoting the testimony of E. Howard
Hunt before a grand jury on May 2, 1973:


        <<We wanted a pretexted entry, a fact that was obtained by
equipping two of the men from Miami with delivery men's clothing and a
large green suitcase which actually carried the camera equipment inside
it.

* * * (W)e only had two sets of disguises, and they were used by two of
the men, by the two men who made the pretexted entry earlier that
evening.>>


United States v. De Diego, 511 F.2d 818, 823 (D.C. Cir. 1975).


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Fred Shapiro
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:56 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: for the (pretty) new word files...

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006, Fred Shapiro wrote:

> Here is the earliest I find on Nexis:
>
> 1999 _L.A. Times_ 23 Apr. [article beginning on page C1] (Nexis) The
> suit accuses Denver-based Touch Tone Information Inc. of "pretexting,"
> or having employees pose as bank customers in a ruse to obtain account

> balances and other personal data.

Wrong!  I neglected to go to the last page of the Nexis list of hits.
The earliest on Nexis is the 1992 Computerworld article indirectly cited
by Ben Zimmer in his posting.

Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org