Etymology

tentative

ten·ta·tive
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Today it means: A trial; an experiment; an attempt. Full definition →

Medieval Latin tentātīvus
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The story

  1. Medieval Latin · borrowed fromtentātīvus“trying, testing”
  2. English todaytentative

From Medieval Latin tentātīvus (“trying, testing”), from tentō, past participle tentātus (“to try, test”); see tent, tempt.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.