Pretendian en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /pɹɪˈtɛn.diː.ən/ (Australia, Received-Pronunciation, also)
- /pɹɪˈten.diː.ən/ (Australia, Received-Pronunciation)
- /pɹɪˈtɛn.di.ʌn/ (Canada, General-American, Scotland, also)
- /pɹəˈten.diː.ən/ (New-Zealand)
- /pɹɪˈtɛn.di.ən/ (Canada, General-American, Scotland)
- /pɾɪˈʈɛ(ː)n.ɖiː.an/ (India)
- prĭ-tĕn′dē-ən
Etymology
Blend of pretend + (Ind)ian.
Meanings
-
(derogatory, informal) A person who falsely claims to have Native American or Indigenous Canadian ancestry.
A Canadian woman who fraudulently claimed her daughters were Inuit has been sentenced to three years in jail, in what is believed to be the first ever custodial sentence for a “Pretendian”.
2024 June 28, Leyland Cecco, quoting Karima Manji, “Canadian woman gets three years’ jail in first ever sentencing for a ‘Pretendian’”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2024:Natalie waited, expecting the usual white platitude, It's okay; I'm one-sixteenth Cherokee myself, or perhaps a dose of American Indian Princess Syndrome, or an acknowledgment of the glut of Pretendians of late.
2016, MaryJanice Davidson, Danger, Sweetheart, page 104:Although the United States has a long history of white people “playing Indian,” as the scholar Philip J. Deloria calls it in his book of the same name, the 1990s saw the beginning of what would eventually be significant pushback by Native Americans against so-called Pretendians or Pretend Indians, including the successful passage of a national law prohibiting non-Native people from marketing their art as “Indian.”
2021 May 25, Sarah Viren, quoting Andrea Smith, “The Native Scholar Who Wasn’t”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Jun 2023, page 26:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| pretendian | alternative | lexicographic | |
| Pretendians | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Relateds
Translations (2)
pl samozwańcza Indianka (a person who falsely claims to have Native American or Indigenous Canadian ancestry) · pl samozwańczy Indianin (a person who falsely claims to have Native American or Indigenous Canadian ancestry)