Etymograph

English

tend

Tend comes from Middle English tenden, from Old French tendre ‘to stretch, hold forth’, from Latin tendō ‘to stretch’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ten- ‘to stretch’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ten-‘to stretch’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*tend-‘to stretch’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*téndetireconstructed
  4. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tendō‘to stretch’reconstructed
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtendōas tendere‘to stretch’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400tendre‘to stretch’
  7. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tendre
  8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tenden‘to proceed or move’
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1811tend

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ten-‘to stretch’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*tend-‘to stretch’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*téndetireconstructed
  4. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tendō‘to stretch’reconstructed
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtendōas tendere‘to stretch’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400tendre‘to stretch’
  7. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600tendre
  8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tenden‘to proceed or move’
  9. Englishearliest quotation 1811tend

Earliest quotation: 1811, Jane Austen, London: […] C[harles] Roworth: “She had found in her everything that could tend…”

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *tendō ‘to stretch’

intentional, hypertension, pretense, hypotension, inattention, pretension, 33 more

through Latin tendō ‘to stretch, stretch out, extend, spread out’

attention, extensive, extension, extent, intention, tension, attendance, tense, contention, tempt, tensor, tensile, extensible, entente, portent, détente, entendre, detent, 41 more

Another origin of tend

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tenden‘to pay attention to’
  2. Englishtodaytend

Another origin of tend

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*den-root as named
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*tinnaną‘to burn’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*tandijaną‘to kindle’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150tendan‘to kindle, set on fire’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tenden‘to raze or destroy with fire’
  6. Englishtodaytend

Today it means

verb To make a tender of; to offer or tender.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ten- / tend

Shirt and support for this word