tenement
noun/ˈtɛnɪmənt/
Etymology From Middle English tenement, from Anglo-Norman tenement (“holding”), from Old French tenement, from Medieval Latin tenimentum, from Latin teneō (“hold”).
1
A building that is rented to multiple tenants, especially a low-rent, run-down one.
- He turned into Cumberland street and, going on some paces, halted in the lee of the station wall. No-one. Meade’s timberyard. Piled balks. Ruins and tenements.1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 5]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
2
Law Any form of property that is held by one person from another, rather than being owned.
- The island of Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark.
3
Figuratively A dwelling; abode; habitation.
- Who has informed us that a rational soul can inhabit no tenement, unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece?1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:
- Where she came from no man could tell. There were some said she was no woman, but a ghost haunting some mortal tenement.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
- Synonyms
- tenement house, apartment building
- Derived terms
- servient tenement, tenemental, tenementary, tenemented, tenementer, tenementlike
- Related terms
- rooming house