Carnegie as he appears in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Andrew Carnegie ( kar- NAY -gee , but commonly KAR -nÉ-ghee or kar- NEG -ee ; November 25, 1835 â August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist .
pretentious. adjective. 1  Claiming that or behaving as if one is important or deserving of merit when such is not the case: a pretentious socialite. 2  Showing or betraying an attitude of superiority: made pretentious remarks about his education.
pretension Pretension is what you're guilty of when you boorishly try to impress other people with how important or clever you are. When you speak with pretension, you're boastful and you puff yourself up as someone very important or of great worth. If you have literary pretentions, you mostly likely think you're a great writer, but you most likely are not. As you might imagine, this word has the same Latin roots as pretend and pretense.