Tendo

English word distend means “to swell and become large”. Judging from its form and meaning, there must be something in common between distend and extend. They both come from the Latin tendō, meaning “I stretch” or “I aim”. There are many words from this origin, so I’m going to write a bit about them.

in the sense “to stretch, extend”

The words extend, distend, and tent have the sense related to stretching physically. Tense means figuratively stretched (nervous and worried). Intense also etymologically meant “stretched”, and today it means “very strong or acute”.

in the sense “to direct attention”

There are attend, attention, tend (to care for something), and intend, all meaning something like “to aim or direct attention”. By the way, I didn’t know that a bartender was (originally) someone who tends a bar.

in the sense “to expose, show”

The word ostensible is composed of os- (alternative form of ob-, meaning “towards”) and tendō. Pretend has a similar sense “to show something that is not true”.