I learned a new word recently. The word is “pretexting”. I know it’s a new word because it isn’t in any of my dictionaries, and I have several quite good ones.

With a respectful nod to William Safire, who himself took on the etymological origins of “pretexting” in his September 24, 2006 New York Times Magasine column, I thought it would be fun for each of us to learn more about this exciting new word.

First, let’s discuss context. Where did this word come from? Well, it first started appearing with any regularity – at least in the lay press – in connection with the recent spate of news stories relating to the scandal at Hewlett-Packard (though I suspect that specialists in the art of “pretexting” have been using the word for awhile – such is the nature of new words).

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