THE FIRST WORD

tenuous

PRONUNCIATION:

(TEN-yoo-uhs) 

MEANING:

adjective: Very weak; unsubstantiated; thin.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin tenuis (thin). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which is also the source of tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, tenable, extenuate, countenance, pertinacious, and detente. Earliest documented use: 1597.

USAGE:

"[Arizona governor Jan] Brewer's grasp of facts is tenuous: she told The Arizona Republic in 2010 that her father died fighting the Nazis in Germany, when he died a decade after the end of the war."
Maureen Dowd; Tension on the Tarmac; The New York Times; Jan 28, 2012.