tenui

Tenui is a Latin verb form belonging to the verb tenēre, meaning to hold, keep, or possess. It is the first-person singular perfect active indicative, translated as “I held” or, in some contexts, “I have held.”

The standard principal parts of the verb tenēre are: tenēo, tenēre, tenuī, tentum. In classical Latin, the perfect active form is often written as tenui or tenuī (with the macron indicating a long ī in proper editions). The form tenui is not a standalone lemma; it is a specific inflected form used with a first-person singular subject.

As a perfect tense form, tenui denotes a completed past action. Latin generally omits the subject pronoun, so tenui translates directly as “I held.” It can take a direct object in the accusative when a thing is held, for example: librum tenuī, “I held the book.”

In usage, tenui occurs across genres in classical Latin texts, including poetry, prose, and monumental inscriptions, wherever a completed act of holding or possessing is described. Because tenui is tied to tenēre, its meaning remains consistent with possession or retention rather than a physical lifting or moving action.

Related forms in the paradigm of tenēre include the other perfect forms (tenuit, tenuimus, tenuistis, tenuerunt) and the imperfect tense (tenēbam, tenēbās, tenēbat, etc.), as well as future and passive and deponent constructions of tenēre. The verb as a whole is a standard member of the 2nd conjugation in Latin grammar.

See also: tenēre; Latin verbs; Latin grammar; Latin verb conjugation.