man, there are just so many interesting connections to be found in this one little word...
from Bartleby:
Indo-European Roots
ENTRY: ten-
DEFINITION: To stretch.
Derivatives include tendon, pretend, hypotenuse, tenement, tenor, entertain, lieutenant, and tone.
I. Derivatives with the basic meaning. 1. Suffixed form *ten-do-. a. tend1, tender2, tense1, tent1; attend, contend, detent, distend, extend, intend, ostensible, pretend, subtend, from Latin tendere, to stretch, extend; b. portend, from Latin portendere, “to stretch out before” (por-, variant of pro-, before; see per1), a technical term in augury, “to indicate, presage, foretell.” 2. Suffixed form *ten-yo-. tenesmus; anatase, bronchiectasis, catatonia, entasis, epitasis, hypotenuse, neoteny, peritoneum, protasis, syntonic, telangiectasia, from Greek teinein, to stretch, with o-grade form ton- and zero-grade noun tasis (< *t-ti-), a stretching, tension, intensity. 3. Reduplicated zero-grade form *te-t-o-. tetanus, from Greek tetanos, stiff, rigid. 4. Suffixed full-grade form *ten-tro-. a. tantra, from Sanskrit tantram, loom; b. sitar, from Persian tr, string. 5. Basic form (with stative suffix) *ten--. tenable, tenacious, tenaculum, tenant, tenement, tenet, tenon, tenor, tenure, tenuto; abstain, contain, continue, detain, entertain, lieutenant, maintain, obtain, pertain, pertinacious, rein, retain, retinaculum, retinue, sustain, from Latin tenre, to hold, keep, maintain (< “to cause to endure or continue, hold on to”). 6. Extended form *ten-s-. Suffixed zero-grade form *ts-elo-. tussah, from Sanskrit tasaram, shuttle.
II. Derivatives meaning “stretched,” hence “thin.” 1. Suffixed zero-grade form *t-u-. thin, from Old English thynne, thin, from Germanic *thunniz, from *thunw-. 2. Suffixed full-grade form *ten-u-. tenuous; attenuate, extenuate, from Latin tenuis, thin, rare, fine. 3. Suffixed full-grade form *ten-ero-. tender1, tendril; intenerate, from Latin tener, tender, delicate.
III. Derivatives meaning “something stretched or capable of being stretched, a string.” 1. Suffixed form *ten-n-. tendon, teno-, from Greek tenn, tendon. 2. Suffixed o-grade form *ton-o-. tone; baritone, tonoplast, from Greek tonos, string, hence sound, pitch. 3. Suffixed zero-grade form *t-y-. taenia; polytene, from Greek taini, band, ribbon. (Pokorny 1. ten- 1065.)
and I should probably ask what the heck o-grade and zero-grade and all that's about...
