Tentative means offered carefully and open to change. A first attempt, held out to see what happens.
It describes plans, offers and conclusions, so a tentative agreement is one nobody has signed and a tentative date is one that may still move. The other use is about manner, and a tentative step or a tentative knock is a hesitant one. The two are connected by the same uncertainty. The adverb tentatively is common in research writing, since results are tentatively suggested long before they are claimed.
Tentative is a trying-out. Medieval Latin tentātīvus meant testing, from tentō, to try, which is the same verb standing behind tempt, so a tentative offer is one being tested on you.
Medieval Latin
tentātīvus — trying, testing
English, today
tentative
Built from
From Medieval Latin tentātīvus (“trying, testing”), from tentō, past participle tentātus (“to try, test”); see tent, tempt.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Academic English, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 22 of A Man Called Ove.
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