• adj. 纖細的；稀薄的；貧乏的

來自拉丁語 tenuis,拉長的，薄的，細的，來自 PIE*ten,展開，詞源同 extend,thin,attenuate.引 申詞義纖細的，脆弱的等。

tenuous

tenuous: [16] Tenuous comes from the same ultimate ancestor as thin. It is an alteration of an earlier and now defunct tenuious, which was adapted from Latin tenuis ‘thin’. And this went back to the Indo-European base *ten- ‘stretch’, a variant of which produced English thin.
=> tend, thin

tenuous (adj.)

1590s, "thin, unsubstantial," irregularly formed from Latin tenuis "thin, drawn out, meager, slim, slender," figuratively "trifling, insignificant, poor, low in rank," from PIE root *ten- "to stretch" (cognates: Sanskrit tanuh "thin," literally "stretched out;" see tenet) + -ous. The correct form with respect to the Latin is tenuious. The figurative sense of "having slight importance, not substantial" is found from 1817 in English. Related: Tenuously; tenuousness.

1. This decision puts the President in a somewhat tenuous position.

這個決定使得總統的位置有些岌岌可危。

來自柯林斯例句

2. a tenuous hold on life

命若游絲

來自《權威詞典》

3. He has a rather tenuous grasp of reality.

他對現實認識很膚淺.

來自《簡明英漢詞典》

4. The cultural and historical links between the many provinces were seen to be very tenuous.

許多省份之間的文化和歷史紐帶被認為是很脆弱的。

來自柯林斯例句

5. The historical links between many provinces were seen to be very tenuous.

許多省份之間的歷史紐帶被認為是很脆弱的。

來自辭典例句