Tandem

How to spell tandem

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tandem

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tandem mean?

1. nounA bicycle, or other arrangement, built for two people or things positioned one behind the other.
2. adverbWorking alongside or in conjunction with something else; used chiefly in the phrase 'in tandem'.

Tandem in a sentence

• noun

  The couple hired a tandem to ride along the seafront together.

• adverb

  The two departments worked in tandem to launch the new product on time.

• noun

  The parachute instructor strapped the beginner into a tandem for the jump.

• adverb

  The marketing plan was rolled out in tandem with the price cuts.

Where does tandem come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is one of English's better jokes about Latin. In Latin, tandem simply meant 'at length' or 'at last' in the sense of time, built from tam ('so') with an emphatic ending. In late eighteenth-century university slang, English speakers playfully misapplied that 'at length' to mean 'at length' in space, and used tandem for a carriage drawn by two horses harnessed one in front of the other rather than side by side. From that humorous coinage the word spread to mean any arrangement of things placed one behind another, and later attached itself to the two-seater bicycle. Because the word was borrowed whole and unaltered from Latin, the spelling is refreshingly regular, with no silent letters or doubled consonants to trap the writer.

How the word is built

• tandem (Latin adverb: at length, used punningly for one-behind-the-other)