tenancy

Etymology

It is formed from English tenant + -cy,^[2][3][4][5] or, in the analysis of the OED and the Shorter Oxford, from tenant with the suffix -ancy.^[6][7][8] The English word represents Medieval Latin tenentia, recorded in 1116, and its variant tenantia, recorded about 1200,^[6][8] and the OED compares Old French tenance, found in the 12th century.^[6] Anglo-Norman had tenance from 1260, for possession, ownership and the holding of land as a tenant, with spellings such as tenancie and tenauncy.^[9] Johnson derived it from an Old French form and a form of "law Latin".^[10] Tenant is from Anglo-Norman tenaunt, from Old French tenant (“possessor; feudal tenant”), the present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin teneō (“to hold, keep, grasp”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A holding, a piece of land or property held by a tenant: 1579, in John Stubbs's Discouerie of Gaping Gulf, a sense the OED marks obsolete after 1670.^[6] The Shorter Oxford dates this sense to late Middle English.^[7] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s,^[2] and Merriam-Webster to 1590, for the holding of an estate.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, the holding of lands or tenements by any title, is recorded from 1590, in Henry Swinburne's treatise on wills, and the narrower sense of occupancy under a lease, which the OED calls the ordinary current one, from 1598, in Marston.^[6] The word also came to mean the length of such a holding.^[6][2] From 1598, in Joseph Hall's satires, it was extended to occupying or enjoying any place, position or condition,^[6] and Collins records the period during which an office or position is held.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined it as temporary possession of what belongs to another, quoting Wotton's "a tenancy at will".^[10] The concrete senses, a holding or a post held by a tenant, died out in the 17th century in the OED's record,^[6][7] though the American Heritage Dictionary and Collins still list a property held by a tenant.^[12][11]

Timeline

• 1579 – a holding, a tenement (obsolete by 1670).^[6]
• 1590 – the holding of lands or tenements by any title of ownership.^[6][3]
• 1598 – occupancy of land or property under a lease; also the period of such a tenure.^[6]
• 1598 – occupation or enjoyment of any place, position or condition.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The holding or occupancy of land, a building or other property that belongs to another, usually under a lease or on payment of rent: Their tenancy of the flat began in March.^{[12][3][11][13]}
2. The period for which a tenant holds or occupies such property: a two-year tenancy.^{[12][3][11][13]}
3. The period during which a person holds an office or position; tenure.^[11][6]
4. A property held or occupied by a tenant.^[12][11]
5. (obsolete) A post or office.^[6][7]

Word family

• subtenancy
• tenancy in common
• joint tenancy

Related words

• tenant
• tenement
• tenure
• tenet
• lieutenant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West