tenure

From Middle English tenure, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French tenure, from Vulgar Latin *tenitura, from *tenitus, from Latin tentus (from teneō) + -ura.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.jʊə/, /ˈtɛn.jə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.jɚ/

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tenure (countable and uncountable, plural tenures)

1. A status of possessing a thing or an office; an incumbency.
   • 1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Expostulation”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC:

     All that seems thine own, / Held by the tenure of his will alone.

   • 2022 November 16, Christian Wolmar, “Can Merriman use his rail knowledge to make a difference?”, in RAIL, number 970, page 45:

     It will be rather entertaining to watch Merriman when he first faces the Transport Select Committee, with his former colleagues likely to be merciless in their questioning. During his tenure, Merriman was pretty sharp, which was no bad thing, and they will make sure he gets a dose of his own medicine.

2. A period of time during which something is possessed.
3. A status of having a permanent post with enhanced job security within an academic institution.
4. A right to hold land under the feudal system.

• (a status of possessing a thing or an office): incumbency

• tenure-track

• tenant
• tenurial

tenure (third-person singular simple present tenures, present participle tenuring, simple past and past participle tenured)

1. (transitive) To grant tenure, the status of having a permanent academic position, to (someone).

• neuter, retune, run tee, tureen, untree

• IPA^(key): /tə.nyʁ/

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tenure f (plural tenures)

1. (historical) tenure (right to hold land under the feudal system)

• “tenure”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• eurent, neutre, retenu, teneur

tenure

1. Alternative form of tenour

• teneure (common), teneüre, tenëure (diaereses are not universally used in Old French transcriptions)
• tenuire
• tennure
• tenour
• tenuere

tenure oblique singular, f (oblique plural tenures, nominative singular tenure, nominative plural tenures)

1. tenure (right to hold land under the feudal system)
2. holding (of land); estate
3. tenure, right of possession
   • 1283, Philippe de Beaumanoir, Les Coutumes de Beauvaisis, available in page 237 of this document

     le longue tenure qu'il alliguent ne lor vaut riens

     The long tenure that they are claiming is worth nothing to them

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (teneure)
• tenure on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub