The story
- Latin · derived fromretentiō, retentiōnis
- Middle English · inherited fromretencioun
- English todayretention
From Middle English retencioun, borrowed from Latin retentiō, retentiōnis, from retentus, the perfect passive participle of retineō (“retain”) (from re- (“back, again”) + teneō (“hold, keep”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.