tenure
[ten-yer]
- the holding or possessing of anything: the tenure of an office.
- the holding of property, especially real property, of a superior in return for services to be rendered.
- the period or term of holding something.
- status granted to an employee, usually after a probationary period, indicating that the position or employment is permanent.
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- to give tenure to: After she served three years on probation, the committee tenured her.
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Origin of tenure
1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French teneure < Vulgar Latin *tenitura, equivalent to *tenit(us) held (for Latin tentus, past participle of tenēre) + -ura -ure
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
termadministrationreignownershipoccupationregimepossessiongripclinchclutchincumbencyoccupancydynastyproprietorshiptenancyresidenceclampholdingclenchgraspExamples from the Web for tenure
Contemporary Examples
In this clip, a teenage Minaj gets heated and throws a phone in a play rehearsal during her tenure at LaGuardia High School.
Simpson also encountered similar situations during his tenure at the Center.
“That was the longest, most severe S/M session I have experienced in my thirty-four-year tenure,” she writes in the book.
His stories about his tenure in Washington hype his success in fixing housing problems in “inner cities.”
But that tenure ended when he was sent to prison for five years on a racketeering charge.
Former Providence Mayor & Ex-Con Buddy Cianci's Redemption Tour Goes BustDavid Freedlander
November 4, 2014
Historical Examples
Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious.
White FangJack London
All magistrates, whatever be their tenure of office, must give an account of their magistracy.
LawsPlato
They gave the tenants security of tenure, and the landowners an act of settlement.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891Hall Caine
Not if the tenure of power is dependent upon its equitable administration.
ScaramoucheRafael Sabatini
From this point the history of tenure parts into two branches.
Ancient LawSir Henry James Sumner Maine
tenure
- the possession or holding of an office or position
- the length of time an office, position, etc, lasts; term
- mainly US and Canadian the improved security status of a person after having been in the employ of the same company or institution for a specified period
- the right to permanent employment until retirement, esp for teachers, lecturers, etc
- property law
- the holding or occupying of property, esp realty, in return for services rendered, etc
- the duration of such holding or occupation
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French, from Medieval Latin tenitūra, ultimately from Latin tenēre to hold
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for tenure
n.
early 15c., "holding of a tenement," from Anglo-French and Old French tenure "a tenure, estate in land" (13c.), from Old French tenir "to hold," from Vulgar Latin *tenire, from Latin tenere "to hold" (see tenet). The sense of "condition or fact of holding a status, position, or occupation" is first attested 1590s. Meaning "guaranteed tenure of office" (usually at a university or school) is recorded from 1957.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper