Meaning

adjective making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction

adjective intended to attract notice and impress others

adjective (of a display) tawdry or vulgar

originFrom French prétentieux, from prétention, from Latin praetēnsus (“false or hypocritical profession”), past participle of praetendō. Note that pretentious is spelled with a ‘t’, unlike related pretense, pretension. This is due to the French spelling: *-sious does not occur as an English suffix, though -sion and -tion both do.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0