Where does “tenseless” come from?

Tenseless derives from English tense, from Latin tensus, the past participle of Latin teneo, meaning to hold or stretch.

tenseless (English): Lacking grammatical tense

Definitions

  1. Lacking grammatical tense

Ancestry of “tenseless”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-less(something); without (something). Added usually to a noun to form an adjective signifying a lack of that noun
2Middle English-lesLacking (something); without (something)
3Turkish-lewith, shortened form of ile; by, shortened form...
4Turkishilewith; and
5Ottoman Turkishایلهby
6Old Anatolian Turkishاِیلَه
7Proto-Turkicbilewith, together, also

Words derived from “tenseless

Every word from Proto-Turkic bileEvery word from English -lessEvery word from Middle English -les
tenseless — Etymology, Origin & Word History | Etymology Explorer