tenon

English

Etymology

From Middle English tenoun, tenown, tenon, from Anglo-Norman tenoun, from Old French tenon.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛnən

Noun

tenon (plural tenons)

1. A projecting member left by cutting away the wood around it, and made to insert into a mortise, and in this way secure together the parts of a frame.
   • 1918, Herman Frederick Rusch, Shop Work, Joinery-cabinet-making-carpentry, Chicago, Illinois, United States: University of Chicago Press, page 56:

     A keyed mortise-and-tenon joint is constructed the same as a doweled mortise and tenon joint except that the tenon projects far enough through the mortise to admit the insertion of a tapering key which draws the mortised piece firmly against the shoulder of the tenon.

   • 1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 341:

     One soon learned, however, that it was no easy thing to make wood do exactly as one required it. It looked quite easy in the masterly hands of the experienced pattern-maker, but the mysteries of dowelling and mortice and tenon were not uncovered in a week or two.

   • 2016 September 6, A Little Book of Woodworking Joints - Including Dovetailing, Mortise-and-Tenon and Mitred Joints, 2nd edition (paperback), Read Books Limited, →ISBN:

     If there is much gauging for the same size mortise and tenon to be done, and if a mortise gauge is not handy, a simple improvised gauge for the purpose can easily be made with two pieces of wood and four or five steel sprigs…

Derived terms

• tenon saw

Translations

projecting member left by cutting away the wood around it

• Bulgarian: шип (bg) m (šip), цапфа f (capfa)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 榫頭／榫头 (zh) (sǔntou), 凸榫 (tūsǔn), 接榫 (jiēsǔn)

• Czech: čep m
• Finnish: tappi (fi), vaarna (fi)
• French: tenon (fr) m
• German: Zapfen (de) m
• Greek: μόρσο (el) n (mórso)
• Hebrew: סִין (he) m (sin), שֵׁן (he) f (shen)
• Japanese: ほぞ (ja) (hozo)
• Maori: arero
• Ottoman Turkish: زوانه (zıvana)
• Russian: ца́пфа (ru) f (cápfa), шип (ru) m (šip), вту́лка (ru) f (vtúlka)
• Swedish: tapp (sv) c, spont (sv) c
• Turkish: zıvana (tr)
• Welsh: tyno m

See also

• mortise-and-tenon joint

Verb

tenon (third-person singular simple present tenons, present participle tenoning, simple past and past participle tenoned)

1. (transitive) To make into a tenon.

   First we'll tenon this part, then we'll make a mortise that will fit it on that part.

2. (transitive) To fit with tenons.

Anagrams

• Tenno, nonet, tenno, tonne

French

Etymology

From ten(ir) +‎ -on.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tə.nɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tenon m (plural tenons)

1. tenon

Further reading

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

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek τένων (ténōn). Doublet of tendō, a later borrowing.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.noːn/, [ˈt̪ɛnoːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.non/, [ˈt̪ɛːnon]

Noun

tenōn m (genitive tenontis); third declension

1. (anatomy) A tendon, nerve

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tenōn	tenontēs
Genitive	tenontis	tenontum
Dative	tenontī	tenontibus
Accusative	tenontem	tenontēs
Ablative	tenonte	tenontibus
Vocative	tenōn	tenontēs

References

• tenon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French tenon.

Noun

tenon

1. Alternative form of tenoun

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin tenōn.

Noun

tenon

1. Alternative form of thenoun