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Pertain comes to English via Anglo-French from the Latin verb pertinēre, meaning "to reach to" or "to belong." Pertinēre, in turn, was formed by combining the prefix per- (meaning "through") and tenēre ("to hold"). Tenēre is a popular root in English words and often manifests with the -tain spelling that can be seen in pertain. Other descendants include abstain, contain, detain, maintain, obtain, retain, and sustain, to name a few of the more common ones. Not every -tain word has tenēre in its ancestry, though. Ascertain, attain, and certain are certainly exceptions. And a few tenēre words don't follow the usual pattern: tenacious and tenure are two.
Examples of pertain in a Sentence
Juan Ortega, Sun Sentinel, 16 May 2025
One of them pertained to McIlroy and his success at this track.
—Kendall Capps, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 May 2025
Information pertaining to the whereabouts of the jet disappeared from flight tracking websites.
—Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 13 May 2025
His bill that the district attorney’s office cited did not pertain to a person’s location at the time of death, the professors noted.
—Cody Copeland, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Pertain.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pertain. Accessed 22 May. 2025.
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pertain
verb
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