Both Uses
tenable
in
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
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- There is no institution for whose history I have a deeper admiration; but I cannot honestly be ordained her minister, as my brothers are, while she refuses to liberate her mind from an untenable redemptive theolatry.†
Chpt 3 *untenable = not defensiblestandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in untenable means not and reverses the meaning of tenable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- He moved on in silence, as if his energies were benumbed by the hitherto undreamt-of possibility that his position was untenable.†
Chpt 6
Definitions:
-
(1)
(tenable) able to be defended -- especially of an opinion or a position
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)