"Pretexting": new?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 4/10/07, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> On Apr 9, 2007, at 8:51 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > According to Slashdot,
> >
> > "Pretexting" [main stress on the first syllable?] is the practice of
> > pretending to be someone else in order to obtain personal information
> > on a person, such as telephone or banking records.
>
> google on "pretexting Hewlitt-Packard".

Or even better, "Hewlett-Packard." :->

First noted in these precincts by Erin McKean in 2002:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0212E&L=ADS-L&P=R466

And then again last year by Larry Horn:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0609B&L=ADS-L&P=R6960

In the latter thread John Baker cited an example of the verb "pretext"
from 1965.


--Ben Zimmer

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