Word Confusion: Portentous versus Pretentious

Posted February 17, 2022 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
24 Sept 2022

Pinterest pin for Portentous versus Pretentious

I ran across portentous versus pretentious on the Internet and wondered at the difference, as they seem so much alike.

Turns out that portentous is not only pompous but veers from ominous to momentous. A negative to a positive.

Pretentious does relate to portentous in term of self-importance — that pomposity — but is more about the fake, i.e., full of pretense and making excessive claims about their own importance or sophistication.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Portentous	Pretentious
Nina Payne, December 1923, by an unknown photographer is in the public domain courtesy of Arts & Decoration, vol. 20, via Wikimedia Commons. — She has quite the portentous look on her face.	Puttin’ on the Ritz by GeorgeB2 is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay. — Talk about pretentious!
Part of Grammar:
Adjective	Adjective
Of or like a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen Done in a pompously or overly solemn manner so as to impress Ominously significant or indicative Marvelous Amazing Prodigious	Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed Characterized by assumption of dignity or importance, especially when exaggerated or undeserved Ostentatious Full of pretense or an aspiration or claim to a certain status or quality Having no factual basis False
Examples:
His portentous declamation was unsalted by the least trace of humor. He looked at the envelope and its portentous contents with horror. The author’s portentous moralizing was overdone. It was a portentous defeat. The film was filled with suspense, portentous foreshadowing, and hints of sinister and violent mysteries. The opening gate of the brightly lit carnival was portentous. In 1969 people regarded the first landing on the moon as a truly portentous event. “Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick.	He had used a pretentious literary device in his last novel. He’s a pretentious, self-important waiter. Of course a lot of what he said was pretentious rubbish but that is normal for art critics. This has been dismissed by most film writers as an inaccurate, pretentious bore.
Derivatives:
Adjective: nonportentous Adverb: nonportentously, portentously Noun: portentousness	Adjective: unpretentious Adverb: pretentiously, unpretentiously Noun: pretentiousness, unpretentiousness
History of the Word:
1530–40, from the Latin portentōsus, portent + -ous.	Mid-19th century, from the French prétentieux, from prétention, from the late Middle English from the medieval Latin praetensio(n-), from praetens- meaning alleged, from the verb praetendere meaning stretch forth, claim, from prae (before) + tendere (stretch).

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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