tenant

See also: Tenant

English

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

[1325] Borrowed from Anglo-Norman tenaunt, from Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre, present active infinitive of teneō (“hold, keep”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtɛ.nənt/, enPR: tĕnənt
  • Rhymes: -ɛnənt

Noun

tenant (plural tenants)

  1. One who pays a fee (rent) in return for the use of land, buildings, or other property owned by others.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Arthur Morrison, The Thing in the Upper Room:
      Long even before the last tenant had occupied it, the room had been regarded with fear and aversion, and the end of that last tenant had in no way lightened the gloom that hung about the place.
  2. One who has possession of any place; a dweller; an occupant.
    • Cowper
      sweet tenants of this grove
    • Cowley
      the happy tenant of your shade
    • Byron
      the sister tenants of the middle deep
  3. (law) One who holds a property by any kind of right, including ownership.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See also

Verb

tenant (third-person singular simple present tenants, present participle tenanting, simple past and past participle tenanted)

  1. To hold as, or be, a tenant.
  2. (transitive) To inhabit.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      His thin legs tenanted a pair of gambadoes fastened at the side with rusty clasps.
Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

tenant

  1. Misconstruction of tenet

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Present participle of tenir. From Old French tenant; corresponding to Latin tenens, tenentem.

Verb

tenant

  1. present participle of tenir

Anagrams

Old French

Alternative forms

  • tenaunt (Anglo-Norman, noun, adjective, verb)

Etymology

From the verb tenir (“to hold; to possess”); corresponding to Latin tenens, tenentem.

Noun

tenant m (oblique plural tenanz or tenantz, nominative singular tenanz or tenantz, nominative plural tenant)

  1. holder
  2. possessor (of land or property); tenant

Adjective

tenant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular tenant or tenante)

  1. holder; owner (attributively)
  2. sticky; adhesive
  3. strong (of an object, etc.)

Verb

tenant

  1. present participle of tenir

Descendants

References

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