14:1 Pretentious

Where & When: I was watching How I Met Your Mother earlier this week and heard the word "pretentious." Ted was telling two of his friends, Robin and Barney, about his first girlfriend, Karen, from high school/college. Karen was a slight snob and she used the word pretentious quite frequently. As did Ted, who turned into a male version of Karen when he was with her. I don't quite remember the exacting word but it appeared numerous times throughout the episode and sometimes was said "that's so pretentious."

Fryman, P. (Director),Bays, C., & Thomas, C. (Creator) (2009). Sorry, bro [Television series episode]. In How i met your mother. 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Definition: Pretentious is defined as: an allegation of doubtful value : pretext; a claim or an effort to establish a claim; a claim or right to attention or honor because of merit; an aspiration or intention that may or may not reach fulfillment

In this context I believe that is defined as claiming that something deserves high attention but really doesn't.

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pretension%5B1%5D?show=0&t=1354471582
 
Level of Familiarity: I have heard this word before. Not only have I seen this episode before, but the ensuing episodes of How I Met Your Mother had the word in it as well. I never knew what it meant, but I was able to understand its meaning through the context it was used in.

Reflective Commentary: I picked pretentious to be my word this week because it was continuously used not only in that particular episode but also in the ensuing two episodes. I was able to gain a surface understanding of the word through how Karen and Ted used it in their sentences. But I was still curious to know the actual definition of the word. Usually I can hear a word once and as interested as I am about it, I'll just use my context clues to understand its meaning. However the word was used so often, I was rather curious to know its true meaning. This is a great word to know as you can call someone pretentious if they are making a big deal about something that doesn't really deserve the attention.