tenant

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: Possibly just a modification of tenet, but note obsolete tenent (“tenet”).

1. Misconstruction of tenet.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English tenaunt, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt and Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre (“hold, keep”).

1. To hold as, or be, a tenant.
2. To inhabit.

   “His thin legs tenanted a pair of gambadoes fastened at the side with rusty clasps.”

   “The felling of dense and lofty forests, which covered, even within the records of history, a considerable space on the globe, now tenanted by civilized man, must generally have lessened the amount of vegetable food throughout the space where these woods grew.”