c. 1600, from Latin stem of tenacity + -ous. Related: Tenaciously; tenaciousness.
Entries linking to tenacious
tenacity n.
early 15c., tenacite, "quality of holding firmly," from Old French ténacité (14c.) and directly from Latin tenacitas "an act of holding fast," from tenax (genitive tenacis) "holding fast, gripping, clingy; firm, steadfast," from tenere "to hold" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch"). The PIE root produced two Latin verbs, tenere "to hold, grasp," and tendere "to stretch" (as in tend (v.1)), which perhaps is from an inflected form in the PIE verb. Both Latin verbs have past participle tentus.
-ous
word-forming element making adjectives from nouns, meaning "having, full of, having to do with, doing, inclined to," from Old French -ous, -eux, from Latin -osus (compare -ose (1)). In chemistry, "having a lower valence than forms expressed in -ic."