tennistennis

Tennis comes from Middle English tennys, from Old French tenez ‘hold!’, the plural imperative of tenir ‘to hold’, from Latin teneō ‘to hold’.

1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEteneō¹‘to hold’
2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500tenīre¹
3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400tenir¹as tenez‘to hold’
4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400tenez¹‘hold! (imperative of tenir)’
5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tennys¹
6. Englishearliest quotation 1596tennis¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English tennis
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser: “they shall have Intelligence or Espial upon the Enemy,…”.