Where does “tenacity” come from?
Tenacity comes from Latin tenacitas, formed from tenax meaning "holding fast" and the suffix -itas, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ten- meaning "to hold or stretch."
tenacity (English): The quality or state of being tenacious, or...
Definitions
- The quality or state of being tenacious, or...
Ancestry of “tenacity”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | ténacité | — |
| 2 | Latin | tenacitas | tenacity |
| 3 | Latin | tenāx | clinging |
| 4 | Latin | -āx | ish, -y |
| 5 | Latin | -ium | Suffix used to form abstract nouns, sometimes... |
| 6 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |