tenuous

adj. 纤细的；稀薄的；贫乏的

中文词源

tenuous 纤细的，易断的，脆弱的

来自拉丁语 tenuis,拉长的，薄的，细的，来自 PIE*ten,展开，词源同 extend,thin,attenuate.引申词义纤细的，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. tenu- + -ous.2. => having slight importance, not substantial.

1. This decision puts the President in a somewhat tenuous position.: 这个决定使得总统的位置有些岌岌可危。

4. The cultural and historical links between the many provinces were seen to be very tenuous.: 许多省份之间的文化和历史纽带被认为是很脆弱的。

5. The historical links between many provinces were seen to be very tenuous.: 许多省份之间的历史纽带被认为是很脆弱的。