détente

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*tend-“to stretch”
2. Latin · derived from*dētendita
3. French · borrowed fromdétente“loosening, relaxing”
4. English todaydétente

Unadapted borrowing from French détente (“loosening, relaxing”), from Latin *dētendita, a feminine singular participle of dētendō (“to relax”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘from; of’) + tendō (“to stretch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to stretch”)).

Words from the same roots