Obs. Also 7 tenant. [a. L. tenent ‘they hold,’ 3rd pers. pl. pres. indic. of tenēre to hold.] = TENET.
Etymologically a tenet ought to be the opinion of one, what he holds, a tenent the opinion of a number, what they hold; but this distinction, if ever observed in using the words as English, was soon lost. Tenent was apparently more used in the 17th c. than tenet, but became obs. c. 1725.
1551. Abp. Browne (of Armagh), Serm., in Phenix (1721), I. 134. They shall be your greatest enemies, speaking against the Tenents of Rome, and yet be set on by Rome.
1618. Hales, Gold. Rem., II. (1673), 59. Episcopius … required that it might be lawful for them to set down their own Tenents.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. III. (1651), 254. But … to grant this their tenent of the earths motion.
1643. Fuller, Serm., 27 March. 18. Being so fickle in their Tenents.
1646. Sir T. Browne (title), Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into very many received tenents, and commonly presumed Truths.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., v. 111. People of differing religions judge and condemn each other by their own tenents.
