attendattend

Attend comes from Old French atendre ‘to await’, from Latin attendō ‘to direct toward’, from tendō ‘to stretch’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ten- ‘to stretch’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ten-¹‘to stretch’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*tend-¹‘to stretch’reconstructed
3. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*téndeti¹reconstructed
4. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*tendō¹‘to stretch’reconstructed
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEtendō¹‘to stretch’
6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEattendō¹‘to pay attention to; to direct toward’
7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400atendre¹‘to await, expect’
8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500attenden¹‘to pay attention to; to look after’
9. Englishearliest quotation 1579attend¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English attend
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., The Life of Sylla: “[H]e entertained a gard of three thovvſand about him,…”.