The Etymology of Intend
To intend something is, etymologically, to stretch your mind toward it like an archer stretching a bowstring toward a target. Latin intendere combined in- (toward) and tendere (to stretch), from PIE *ten-, one of the most fertile roots in the language family. The physical image of stretching generated an astonishing range of English words: 'tension' (the state of being stretched), 'tent' (stretched fabric), 'tender' (stretched thin, hence delicate), 'attention' (stretching toward), 'contend' (stretching against), 'extend' (stretching out), and 'pretend' (stretching something in front, hence concealing the truth). When intendere passed through Old French as entendre, it developed the meaning 'to understand' — directing one's mental attention toward something. French kept this sense, and today entendre primarily means 'to hear' or 'to understand.' English, however, took the other fork: the sense of aiming or purposing. The phrase 'double entendre' awkwardly preserves the French meaning within English, creating an expression that no French speaker would recognise as grammatically correct.