tandem
pronunciation
How to pronounce tandem in British English:
UK [ˈtændəm]
How to pronounce tandem in American English:
US [ˈtændəm]
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- Noun:
- a bicycle with two sets of pedals and two seats
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- Adverb:
- one behind the other
Word Origin
- tandem
- tandem: [18] Latin tandem meant ‘eventually, at length’. Its use for ‘acting conjointly’ arose from an 18th-century play on words, in which ‘at length’ was jocularly interpreted as ‘lengthwise, in a straight line’, and the word was applied to a ‘carriage drawn by two horses one behind the other in a straight line’. In the 1880s it was transferred to a ‘bicycle with two seats, one behind the other’. Its more general modern use, for ‘acting together’, dates from the early 20th century.
- tandem (n.)
- 1785, "carriage pulled by horses harnessed one behind the other" (instead of side-by-side), jocular use of Latin tandem "at length (of time), at last, so much," from tam "so" (from PIE *tam-, adverbial form of demonstrative pronoun root *-to-; see -th (1)) + demonstrative suffix -dem. "Probably first in university use" [Century Dictionary]. Transferred by 1884 to bicycles with two seats. In English as an adverb from 1795; as an adjective from 1801.
Example
- 1. The system works in tandem with warning lights on the dashboard .
- 2. When profits and wages grow in tandem , the result is healthy economic expansion .
- 3. Low prices undoubtedly help , but improvements in product quality and better co-operation between chinese and african companies in tandem with political ties have also been crucial .
- 4. Tandem 's board gave final approval in july to begin domestic as well as export sales .
- 5. They became a familiar sight , riding around the university on a tandem bicycle .