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Pertain comes to English via Anglo-French from the Latin verb pertinēre, meaning "to reach to" or "to belong." Pertinēre, in turn, was formed by combining the prefix per- (meaning "through") and tenēre ("to hold"). Tenēre is a popular root in English words and often manifests with the -tain spelling that can be seen in pertain. Other descendants include abstain, contain, detain, maintain, obtain, retain, and sustain, to name a few of the more common ones. Not every -tain word has tenēre in its ancestry, though. Ascertain, attain, and certain are among the exceptions. And a few tenēre words don't follow the usual pattern: tenacious and tenure are two.
Examples of pertain in a Sentence
Rey Covarrubias Jr., The Arizona Republic, 20 Oct. 2024
The second part of D.E. Shaw’s campaign pertains to corporate governance, in particular, succession planning for CEO Seifi Ghasemi.
—Kenneth Squire, CNBC, 19 Oct. 2024
The new rule pertains to two federal statutes passed decades ago to protect people with disabilities on multiple fronts.
—Sarah Szilagy, Them, 16 Oct. 2024
Mowry shut down those assumptions, clarifying that the comments pertained to physical distance.
—Jessica Wang, EW.com, 11 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for pertain 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pertain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Pertain.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pertain. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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pertain
verb
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