pretend

Unlikely. Most think prętor comes from prae 'before' + itor (< eo, ire 'to go'), sort of like praesidens 'sitting in front'. Meillet suggest it may actually be an Etruscan loanword that got folk-etymologized. Pretorius is probably just the Dutch name Schout (cf. German Schul(t)z) latinized. (Maybe Bran can corroborate.)

Ceci n'est pas un seing.