Other forms: attended, attending, attends
To attend is to be present at a class, meeting or event. Attend a meeting, attend school, well attended.
In this sense it takes a direct object with no preposition — attend the conference, not attend to it. Attend to is a different verb meaning to deal with or look after: attend to the details, attend to a patient. Attendance is the noun for being there, and attendant is somebody who serves — a car park attendant, a flight attendant. Note that attend is formal; in speech people usually say go to.
1verbattendTo be present at a class, meeting or event.
“Only nine people attended the first session.”
2verbdealTo deal with or look after something.
“She attended to the paperwork before anything else.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
attend is a being present or tending to.
Latin attendere is ad-, to, plus tendere, to stretch — to stretch your mind towards something. Attention, tense and tendency come from the same verb, and attending a meeting is literally directing yourself at it.
Proto-Indo-European
*tend-
Latin
attendō
Old French
atendre — to await, wait for; to expect; to intend
Middle English
attenden
English, today
attend
Built from
From Middle English attenden, atenden (“to devote oneself (to a task, etc.); to pay attention to (something), to look after; to consider (something); to expect or look forward to (something); to intend to do (something); to help or serve (someone), attend upon; to take care of (something)”), from Old French atendre (“to await, wait for; to expect; to intend”), from Latin attendō, adtendō (“to pay attention to, attend; to direct or turn toward”), from ad- (“prefix meaning ‘to, towards’”) + tendō (“to direct one’s course; to extend, stretch; to exert, strive”). a doublet of attempt and tend.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA