The story
- Latin · borrowed frompraetextum“an ornament, etc., wrought in front, a pretense”
- English todaypretext
From Latin praetextum (“an ornament, etc., wrought in front, a pretense”), neuter of praetextus, past participle of praetexere (“to weave before, fringe or border, allege”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.