prætension

prætension (plural prætensions)

1. Obsolete spelling of pretension
   • 1640, The Proceedings of the Commissioners Sent from the Parliament of Scotland to the King, page 52:

     The Lord Commiſsioner ſheweth, that it is his Majeſties will that the Parliament be prorogated to the 2. of June, and that by his Majeſties authority only: of the prorogation, the prætenſion is pag. 30.

   • 1655, Alazonomastix Philalethes [pseudonym; Henry More], Observations upon Anthroposophia Theomagica, and Anima Magica Abscondita, London: […] J. Flesher, page 89:

     So theſe pretended inſpired men though they flie high, and ſeem to feed of nothing but free truth, as they draw it from Gods own breathing; yet they took their ground firſt from the Text, though they ran a deal of fancyfull diviſion upon it; and if a man watch them, he ſhall finde them fall flat upon the Text again, and be but as other Mortals are for all their free prætenſions and extraordinary aſſiſtances.

   • 1705, [Lewis] Maidwell, An Essay upon the Necessity and Excellency of Education. […], London: […] S. B. and J. B.:

     I HOPE this Interruption may præſume ſome Prætenſions of a Pardon, after You have been pleas’d to conſider the Prævaling Motives of my many Obligations. […] He Had then out Rival’d his Neighbour’s Prætenſions, and far beyond a Mauſolæum of Braſs, and Marble, extended a Living Monument of Himſelf round the Globe, to the Aſſiſtance of the Beſt Familys, and the perpetual Advantage of England.