intend

英文词源

intend

intend: [14] The Latin verb intendere (a compound formed from the prefix in- ‘towards’ and tendere ‘stretch’) had a variety of metaphorical meanings, some of which have come through into English. Principal among them was ‘form a plan or purpose’, an extension of an earlier ‘direct or ‘stretch’ one’s thoughts towards something’, which has given English intend and the derived intention [14].

The noun intent [13] belongs with this group too, but the adjective intent [17] looks back to the earlier ‘direct one’s mind towards a particular thing’, and intense [14] comes from the even more literal ‘stretched tight’. A medieval Latin addition to the meanings of intendere was ‘understand’, which English adopted in the 14th century. It had largely died out in English by the end of the 17th century, but it has persisted in the Romance languages, and has even developed further to ‘hear’ (which is what French entendre means).
=> intense, intention, tense

intend (v.)

c. 1300, "direct one's attention to," from Old French entendre, intendre "to direct one's attention" (in Modern French principally "to hear"), from Latin intendere "turn one's attention, strain," literally "stretch out, extend," from in- "toward" (see in- (2)) + tendere "to stretch" (see tenet). Sense of "have as a plan" (late 14c.) was present in Latin. A Germanic word for this was ettle, from Old Norse ætla "to think, conjecture, propose," from Proto-Germanic *ahta "consideration, attention" (cognates: Old English eaht, German acht). Intended (n.) "one's intended husband or wife" is from 1767.