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tendance

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Careful tending or maintenance. In older usage it can mean attention given to something, especially a grave or garden.

Detailed Definition
Hardy uses the word in a slightly old-fashioned sense for the care given to a burial mound. The line suggests that flowers or other attention would not change the dead speaker’s condition, adding to the poem’s bleak irony.
Example
Example in poetry:
“No tendance of her mound can loose” uses tendance for care, attendance, or tending; “The rose required daily tendance through the dry July” makes the noun practical and horticultural; “No tendance at the grave can call the sleeper back” retains its elegiac force; “He gave the seedlings patient tendance, not commands” contrasts nurture with control.
Additional Notes
The word in “No tendance of her mound can loose” is uncommon today and may puzzle readers because it is an older, specialized noun for care or tending.; Found in the poem, Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave? by Thomas Hardy
Also Known As
attendance care guardianship watchfulness
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