Where does “tenuously” come from?
Tenuously comes from English tenuous with the adverbial suffix -ous, from Latin -ōsus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ténh₂us meaning thin or stretched.
tenuously (English): In a tenuous manner
Definitions
- In a tenuous manner
Ancestry of “tenuously”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | -ly | Used to form adjectives from nouns, the... |
| 2 | English | grisly | Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying;... |
| 3 | Middle English | grisely | — |
| 4 | Old English | grisliċ | grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid |
| 5 | Old English | -līċ | suffix forming {{glossary|adjective}}s meaning... |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | *-līk | — |