tenuis

Unadapted borrowing from Latin tenuis (“thin, fine; weak”). Doublet of thin.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛnjuːɪs/, /ˈtɛnuːɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛnjuɪs/, /ˈtɛnuɪs/

tenuis (not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Of Greek consonants, neither aspirated nor voiced, as , ,
2. (linguistics) Of obstruents in other languages, not voiced, aspirated, glottalized, or otherwise different in phonation from the prototypical values of the voiceless IPA letters (, , , , , , , etc.).
   • 2016, Malá & Šaffková, editor, ELT Revisited, page 11:

     The superscript equal sign ˭ is here used to denote the Czech tenuis consonant, in this case the plosive [t˭], which lacks aspiration, in order to contrast it with its aspirated counterpart in English [tʰ].

tenuis (plural tenues)

1. (linguistics) A tenuis consonant.
   • 1887, Max Müller, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     The tenuis becomes aspirate in Low-German.

   • 1913, John Morris-Jones, A Welsh grammar, page 184:

     Since the explosive was a tenuis before a consonant we have -p m- and -t n-; these combinations were mutated to mh and nh in the following examples, the voicelessness of the tenuis being retained after its assimilation

• media
• aspirate

• Suiten, intuse, unites, unties

Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ténh₂us (“thin”).^[1][2][3] Original u-stem adjectives are regularly extended into i-stem ones in Latin, compare gravis, brevis, dulcis, etc.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈte.nu.is/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.nu.is/,
• (sometimes in poetry) (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈten.u̯is/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈten.vis/,

tenuis (neuter tenue, comparative tenuior, superlative tenuissimus, adverb tenuiter); third-declension two-termination adjective

1. thin, fine, slender
2. weak, feeble, tenuous

   Synonyms: dēbilis, languidus, aeger, frāctus, fessus, īnfirmus, mollis, obnoxius, inops

   Antonyms: praevalēns, fortis, potis, potēns, validus, strēnuus, compos

3. slight, trifling
4. delicate, subtle, watery
5. (transferred sense) phantom
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.565–566:

     nunc animae tenuēs et corpora fūncta sepulcrīs errant

     Now phantom spirits wander abroad, and bodies that have been committed to the tombs
     1851. The Fasti &c of Ovid. Trans. Henry T. Riley. London: H. G. Bohn. pg. 71-72.