# tenuis
## English
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin tenuis (“thin, fine; weak”). Doublet of thin.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtɛnjuːɪs/, /ˈtɛnuːɪs/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈtɛnjuɪs/, /ˈtɛnuɪs/

### Adjective

tenuis (not comparable)
* (linguistics) Of Greek consonants, neither aspirated nor voiced, as [p], [t], [k]
* (linguistics) Of obstruents in other languages, not voiced, aspirated, glottalized, or otherwise different in phonation from the prototypical values of the voiceless IPA letters ([p], [t], [k], [f], [θ], [s], [ʃ], etc.).
** 2016, Malá & Šaffková, editor, ELT Revisited, page 11:The superscript equal sign ˭ is here used to denote the Czech tenuis consonant, in this case the plosive [t˭], which lacks aspiration, in order to contrast it with its aspirated counterpart in English [tʰ].

### Noun

tenuis (plural tenues)
* (linguistics) A tenuis consonant.
** 1887, Max Müller, (Please provide the book title or journal name):The tenuis becomes aspirate in Low-German.
** 1913, John Morris-Jones, A Welsh grammar, page 184:Since the explosive was a tenuis before a consonant we have -p m- and -t n-; these combinations were mutated to mh and nh in the following examples, the voicelessness of the tenuis being retained after its assimilation

#### Antonyms

* media
* aspirate

### Anagrams

* Suiten, intuse, unites, unties

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* tēnvis (poetic)

### Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ténh₂us (“thin”). Original u-stem adjectives are regularly extended into i-stem ones in Latin, compare gravis, brevis, dulcis, etc.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈte.nu.is/, [ˈt̪ɛnuɪs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈte.nu.is/, [ˈt̪ɛːnuis]

### Adjective

tenuis (neuter tenue, comparative tenuior, superlative tenuissimus, adverb tenuiter); third-declension two-termination adjective
* thin, fine, slender
* weak, feeble, tenuous
    Synonyms: dēbilis, languidus, aeger, frāctus, fessus, īnfirmus, mollis, obnoxius, inops
    Antonyms: praevalēns, fortis, potis, potēns, validus, strēnuus, compos
* slight, trifling
* delicate, subtle, watery
* (transferred sense) phantom
** 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.565–566:nunc animae tenuēs et corpora fūncta sepulcrīs errantNow phantom spirits wander abroad, and bodies that have been committed to the tombs 1851. The Fasti &c of Ovid. Trans. Henry T. Riley. London: H. G. Bohn. pg. 71-72.
** [1902, George Hempl, “The Duenos Inscription”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, volume 33 (in English), Boston: Ginn & Company, page 163:The mānēs were the ‘rare ones’ or the ‘thin ones,’ the ‘spirits’ or ‘shades’ of the dead, otherwise known as animae tenuēs and umbrae tenuēs.]

#### Declension

Third-declension two-termination adjective.

#### Derived terms

* tenue
* tenuistīpitātus (Medieval Latin)
* tenuitās
* tenuiter
* tenuō

#### Related terms

* tener

#### Descendants

* Catalan: tènue
* French: ténu
* Italian: tenue
* Sicilian: tènui
* Spanish: tenue
* Walloon: tene
* → English: tenuis; →⇒ tenuious, tenuous
* → English: tenuis
* → German: Tenuis
* → Portuguese: ténue, tênue (Brazil)

### References

* ↑ Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1954) “tenuis”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 666
* ↑ Pokorny, Julius (1959) “tenu-s”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 3, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 1069
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “tenuis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 613f.

### Further reading

* “tenuis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “tenuis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* tenuis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. elevated, moderate, plain style: genus dicendi grave or grande, medium, tenue (cf. Or. 5. 20; 6. 21) meagre diet: victus tenuis (Fin. 2. 28. 90) little money: pecunia exigua or tenuis