Talk:tentacle

About the provided etymology

I think that tentacle comes from tentare (to feel, to try by touching) plus the suffix -culus (tentaculus) to create a noun. But I'll check it because I may be wrong (no time now!). It probably arrived in English through the French version, tentacle", anyway. Can someone else check it? - Piolinfax 12:34, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I checked it and the couple of sources I looked up agree on it coming from tentare, a later Latin form of previous temptare (attempt coming from this root as well). Probably tentaculus became tentacle in French and English borrowed it. The French word tenir(meaning to grasp or to hold) / Latin tendere (to strech) seems a likely origin as well so I will go on trying to pinpoint the actual one - Piolinfax 19:03, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)