Forms: α. 5 tenown, 5– tenon, (6–8 tennon); β. 6 tenaunt, -e, 6–7 (9 dial.) tenant, 7 -ent, 7–8 tennant, -ent. [a. F. tenon (15th c. in Godef., Compl.), f. tenir to hold + suffix -on (= L. -ōnem). The β-forms show assimilation to the word TENANT, and to L. tenent-em pr. pple., holding: cf. talon, talent, and see -ANT3.]
1. A projection fashioned on the end or side of a piece of wood or other material, to fit into a corresponding cavity or MORTISE in another piece, so as to form a close and secure joint.
α. 14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 616/1. Tentum, a tenon, quod ponitur in commissura.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 489/1. Tenown, knyttynge of a balke or oþer lyke yn tymbyr (S. tenowre),… tenaculum, gumfus.
1545. Elyot, Cardo … it is also the tenon, whiche is put into the mortayse.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 339. Euery boorde had two tenons like pikes, whereby they were stucke into the sockets.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1662), III. Stafford., 33. There is a fair House on London Bridge, commonly called None-such, which is reported to be made without either Nailes or Pins, with crooked Tennons fastened with wedges and other (as I may term them) circumferential devices.
1852. Wright, Celt, Rom. & Sax., ii. 59. Each of the upright stones [at Stonehenge] had two tenons or projections on the top.
1889. Work, 29 June, 227/1. In cutting dovetails and tenons.
β. 1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 51. Then must you make lyke morteyses … to receaue those tenauntes.
a. 1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., IV. iv. 330. If Chance could make a Beam…, and … Tenents at either end, yet it is not possible to conceive that Chance could … fit the Mortises of other pieces of Timber to those Tenents.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 116. Tennant … a square end fitted into a Mortess.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Yardley, The spire … for want of tennents being pinned down, was blown off.
b. Tenon and mortise (also mortise and tenon: see MORTISE sb. 1 b), the combination of these.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 251. With a small tenents and mortescis.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. xii. § 3. 267. Fastned with tenons and mortaises, the one into the other.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xviii. (Roxb.), 139/1. Fastned in them with a Mortais and Tenent.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Stonehenge, Wks. (Bohn), II. 124. The good beasts must have known how to cut a well-wrought tenon and mortise.
1899. Gerrish, Text-bk. Anat., 239. The ankle is a hinge-joint, in which the articular surfaces of the lower end and internal malleolus of the tibia and of the external malleolus of the fibula form a mortice, into which the upper and lateral facets of the astragalus fit as a tenon.
† c. The lower part of a graft which is cut thin so as to be inserted into the stock. Obs.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 139. Take thy graffe and cut it in the ioynt to the myddes, & make the tenaunt therof half an inche longe or a lytell more al on the one syde.
1641. in Maidment, Bk. Scott. Pasquils, 131. Whose tennons small, if they be left in ground, Like ill weeds soon will waxe.
† d. fig. That which firmly connects or unites two things. Obs. rare.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 145. There are then two things concurre in the producing of man…. This I thinke to bee the surest tenon.
2. attrib. and Comb., as tenon-helve, -joint, piece; tenon-auger, a hollow auger for forming tenons on the ends of spokes, chair-legs, etc.; tenon-saw, a fine saw for making tenons, etc., having a thin blade, a thick back, and small teeth very slightly ‘set.’
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Tenant-helve, see Frontal-hammer.
1865. Reader, No. 133. 73/3. Mortice and *tenon joints.
1901. J. Black’s Carp. & Build., Home Handicr., 14. A pin of hard wood … driven in through the *tenon piece and the mortise.
1549. Privy Council Acts (1890), II. 351. *Tenant sawes, iiij.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 103. The Tennant-Saw, being thin, hath a Back to keep it from bending.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 251. The Tenon-saw derives its name from being used for forming the shoulders of tenons.
