People who claim to be something they are not, or people who claim a throne or title they don't legitimately have.
From Old French 'pretendre,' from Latin 'praetendere' meaning to stretch before or put forward falsely. The 'pre-' means before and 'tend' means to stretch.
History is full of 'pretenders' to thrones—like Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be an English prince—and their stories show how hard it is to fake identity before modern verification!
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