Etymology

tenaille

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Today it means: An outwork in the main ditch of a fortification, in front of the curtain, between two bastions. Full definition →

French tenaille ← Latin tenāculum
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromtenāculum
  2. French · borrowed fromtenaille“a pair of pincers or tongs”
  3. English todaytenaille

From French tenaille (“a pair of pincers or tongs”), from its pincer-like shape, from Latin tenāculum. See tenaculum and tenaillon.

Words from the same roots

Latintenāculum all →

tenacletenaculum

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.