tenement

tenement

See also: tènement

English

Etymology

From Middle English tenement, from Anglo-Norman tenement (“holding”), from Old French tenement, from Medieval Latin tenimentum, from Latin teneō (“hold”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛnɪmənt/

• Audio (UK)

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Noun

tenement (plural tenements)

1. A building that is rented to multiple tenants, especially a low-rent, run-down one.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 5]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], OCLC 560090630:

     He turned into Cumberland street and, going on some paces, halted in the lee of the station wall. No-one. Meade’s timberyard. Piled balks. Ruins and tenements.

2. (law) Any form of property that is held by one person from another, rather than being owned.

   The island of Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark.

3. (figurative) Dwelling; abode; habitation.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], OCLC 153628242:

     Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit no tenement, unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece?

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

     Where she came from no man could tell. There were some said she was no woman, but a ghost haunting some mortal tenement.

Synonyms

• (building): tenement house, apartment building

Derived terms

• servient tenement

Translations

a building that is rented to multiple tenants, especially a low-rent, run-down one

Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can Dutch: huurwoning (nl), flatgebouw (nl) n Finnish: vuokra-asunto (fi), vuokratalo French: appartement (fr) m, logement (fr) m German: Mietskaserne (de) f, Wohnungsblock m; (any house for rent) Mietshaus (de) n, Greek: Ancient: συνοικία f (sunoikía) Hungarian: bérház (hu) Italian: casamento (it) m, condominio (it) m, case popolari f pl, casermone m Latin: insula (la) f Polish: kamienica czynszowa (pl) f, czynszówka (pl) f Portuguese: cortiço (pt) m Romanian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: casa de vecindad f, vecindad (es) f, bloque de viviendas m, inquilinato, (Peru) solar (es) m, conventillo (es) m

any form of property that is held by one person from another, rather than being owned

Dutch: verpachting Hungarian: bérlet (hu), bérlemény (hu) Irish: tionóntán m Russian: арендованное иму́щество n (arendovannoje imúščestvo)

See also

• rooming house

References

• tenement in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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Occitan

Etymology

First attested in the 13th century, From Old Occitan [Term?], from Medieval Latin tenimentum, from Latin teneō (“hold”).

Noun

tenement m (plural tenements)

1. (Feudalism) a rural domain, manor, holdings (land)

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Old French

Etymology

Medieval Latin tenementum, from Latin verb teneō. See the verb tenir.

Noun

tenement m (oblique plural tenemenz or tenementz, nominative singular tenemenz or tenementz, nominative plural tenement)

1. holding (of land)

Descendants

• → English: tenement
• French: tènement