tendentious
/tɛnˈdɛnʃəs/
adjective
Origin
Latin
tendere — to stretch, to reach
Overview
Meaning Now
- Having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose; promoting a controversial point of view.
Literal older meaning
full of a tendency
Language path
Latin → English
Earliest form
tendentious
Earliest period
19th century
Journey
The term entered English in the late 19th century as a translation of the German 'tendentiös', a word used in literary and political criticism to describe works that were explicitly designed to push a specific ideological or moral agenda rather than being purely aesthetic or objective.
Evolution
- Proto-Indo-European
*ten-
“to stretch”
- Latin
tendere
“to stretch, to aim, to intend”
- German
tendentiös
“biased, partisan”
Direct ancestor via German academic loanword
- English
tendentious
“having a bias or purpose”
First recorded in English around 1888
Connections
Word parts
tend-
root
to stretch or aim
-ious
suffix
full of
Related across languages
German
tendentiös
biased
French
tendancieux
tendentious
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Related to tendentious
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.