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Origin and history of tenant
tenant(n.)
early 14c. (early 13c. as a surname), tenaunt, in law, "person who holds lands by title or by lease," from Anglo-French tenaunt (late 13c.), Old French tenant "possessor; feudal tenant" (12c.), noun use of present participle of tenir "to hold," from Latin tenere "hold, keep, grasp" (see tenet).
The general sense of "one who holds property by lease from a landlord" is by late 14c. Tenant-farmer, one who cultivates land as a tenant, is attested from 1748.
Entries linking to tenant
"principle, opinion, or dogma maintained as true by a person, sect, school, etc.," properly "a thing held (to be true)," early 15c., from Latin tenet "he holds," third person singular present indicative of tenere "to hold, grasp, keep, have possession, maintain," also "reach, gain, acquire, obtain; hold back, repress, restrain;" figuratively "hold in mind, take in, understand" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch"). The connecting notion between "stretch" and "hold" is "cause to maintain."
The modern sense is probably because tenet was used in Medieval Latin to introduce a statement of doctrine.
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