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Tainted Love

A list of 10 words by bilby.

  • sustainwas added by bilby and appears on 40 lists
  • entertainwas added by bilby and appears on 17 lists
  • retainwas added by bilby and appears on 35 lists
  • abstainwas added by bilby and appears on 77 lists
  • detainwas added by bilby and appears on 21 lists
  • obtainwas added by bilby and appears on 42 lists
  • ascertainwas added by bilby and appears on 98 lists
  • pertainwas added by bilby and appears on 48 lists
  • containwas added by bilby and appears on 35 lists
  • maintainwas added by bilby and appears on 99 lists

About

The -tain verbs. The fascinating thing with these is that we have most of the family in English yet not the daddy of them, which would be a verb derived from the Latin tenere 'to hold'. We have a clutch of derivatives - tenet, tenant, tenancy, tenor, tenacity, tenacious, tenable, tenement - but we missed out on the verb which made it all possible!

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