tenement

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tenement,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman tenement, also Old French tenement (“fief, land, property”),^[3][4][5] from Medieval Latin tenementum (“a holding, fief”), recorded in 1081,^[3] formed from Latin teneō (“to hold”) and the suffix -mentum.^[3][6] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1136–37^[7] and the Old French from the 12th century.^[3][4] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, extend”),^[8] and so does thin.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The holding of property, and the property held: before 1325, in a text of the statutes.^[3][2] Barnhart finds it about 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,^[5] and Etymonline dates it to about 1300.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A tenement was first what one held, not what one lived in.^[4][3] It moved from the legal holding to the house on it, the general sense of a dwelling appearing by about 1425,^[3][4] though Barnhart puts it probably before 1400.^[5] In the 1590s it narrowed in England to part of a house let as a separate home.^[3][4] Scottish use, from the later 17th century, made it a large house built to be let to many tenants.^[3][4] Weekley took the American tenement house, recorded by 1807 according to Etymonline and in 1858 according to Barnhart, to come from this Scottish use,^[10][4][5] and Barnhart says that in the 1930s the phrase was shortened to tenement.^[5] American usage attached the idea of a poor district and a run-down building to the word.^[4][11] The old legal sense lives on: in lands and tenements, freehold interests are held rather than owned.^[3][12]

Timeline

• before 1325 – the fact of holding a possession, tenure (obsolete by 1651); plural, freehold interests.^[3][2]
• c. 1330 – land or property held of another; a holding.^[3] Barnhart dates this about 1303.^[5]
• c. 1425 – a building or house to live in.^[3][4]
• 1592 – figurative, an abode, especially the body as the home of the soul.^[3][12]
• 1593 – in England, part of a house let as a separate dwelling.^[3][4]
• 1681 – in Scotland, a large house let in portions to many tenants.^[3]
• 1807 – tenement house, in American English.^[4] Barnhart first records it in 1858.^[5]
• 1930s – tenement alone for such a building.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large building divided into separate flats or apartments, especially a run-down one with low rents in a poor part of a city.^[11][13][5]
2. A building or house to live in, especially one meant for rent; a dwelling.^[11][13][9]
3. (chiefly British) A room or flat that is rented out.^[11][13]
4. (law) Permanent property such as land or a building, with the rights that go with it, held by tenure: lands and tenements.^{[11][13][9][12]}
5. (figurative) An abode, especially the body as the home of the soul.^[3][12]
6. (obsolete, 1325–1651) The fact of holding a possession; tenure.^[3][12][2]

Word family

• tenemental
• tenemented
• servient tenement

Related words

• tenant
• tenet
• tenure
• tenable
• tenacious
• tenor
• contain
• retain
• maintain
• thin

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins