tenon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tenoun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman tenoun, Old French tenon,^[2][3] formed from tenir (“to hold”) and the suffix -on,^[4][5][6] from Latin teneō (“to hold”),^[7][8][9] from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, extend”).^[10][9] Barnhart and Dictionary.com call the source Middle French, and the OED French, which it finds from the 15th century,^[11][6][4] but Anglo-Norman has the word from 1235–55, for the cross bar joining the handles of a plough and for the stalk of a fruit.^[12] The OED explains some older spellings as assimilated to tenant.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The projecting piece of a joint, or joinery itself: about 1380, in Pearl, "Þe foundementez twelue of riche tenoun".^[3][11] Etymonline says the late 14th century,^[2] and the OED's first record is from about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Middle English used it in carpentry and ironworking.^[3] Skeat explains the name by saying that a tenon holds fast.^[13] Around 1523 the word also named the thinned lower part of a graft, a use that ended by 1641,^[4] and before 1617 it had a rare figurative use, that which firmly connects two things.^[4] The pairing tenon and mortise is recorded from 1610.^[4] The verb, from the noun, began figuratively in 1596, in a sermon by L. Andrewes, for joining firmly.^[4][11][14] Fixing with a tenon and mortise followed in 1649 according to Barnhart,^[11] 1652 in the OED,^[4] and making a tenon by 1770–71.^[4][2] Johnson (1755) defines the noun as "the end of a timber cut to be fitted into another timber".^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – tenoun, a projecting piece in a joint.^[3][11]
• c. 1523 – the thinned lower part of a graft (obsolete by 1641).^[4]
• 1596 – verb, to join firmly, figuratively.^[4][11][14]
• 1610 – tenon and mortise.^[4]
• 1649 – verb, to fix with a tenon and mortise.^[11] The OED's first record is from 1652.^[4]
• 1770 – verb, to furnish with a tenon.^[4] Etymonline says by 1771.^[2]
• 1797 – verb, intransitive, to fit by a tenon.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A projection on the end or side of a piece of wood or other material, shaped to fit into a mortise in another piece and so make a joint: The carpenter trimmed the tenon until it slid home.^[7][14][4]

Verb

1. To join or fix with a tenon and mortise; figuratively, to join firmly.^[7][14][4]
2. To cut a tenon on a piece of wood: She tenoned the rails before gluing up the frame.^[7][14][4]
3. To become fixed by means of a tenon.^[14][4]

Word family

• tenoner
• tenon saw

Related words

• tenant
• tenable
• tenet
• tenor
• tenacious
• retain
• contain

Usage notes

A Middle English tenoun, a tendon, is listed separately by the Middle English Dictionary, from Latin tenōn and ultimately Greek,^[3] and the English Dialect Dictionary has tenon, a tendon, in Scotland and Yorkshire.^[16] The anatomical Tenon's capsule, around the eyeball, from 1868 in the OED, is named after the French anatomist Jacques René Tenon (1724–1816).^[4][5]

References

1. ^ 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 f 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)