means A person who lays claim to something—a throne, a title, an identity, or a feeling—that isn't rightfully or genuinely theirs.

from From the Latin 'praetendere,' literally 'to stretch forth' (prae-, 'before,' + tendere, 'to stretch')—the image of holding something out in front of you, as if displaying a claim. In medieval and early modern Europe the word clung hard to politics: a 'pretender' was someone who 'put forward' a claim to a crown, like the Jacobite 'Old Pretender' and 'Young Pretender' who stretched their hands toward the British throne. Only later did it soften and turn inward, from claiming kingdoms to merely claiming to be what one is not.