tandem

A tandem bicycle (noun sense 2.2.1).

Ponies driving in tandem (adverb sense).

The noun is borrowed from Latin tandem (“of time: at last, at length, finally”), applied humorously in English to two horses harnessed “at length” (that is, in a single line) instead of side-by-side.[1][2] Tandem is derived from tam (“so, to such an extent”) + -dem (demonstrative suffix).

The adjective,[1] adverb,[2] and verb[3] are derived from the noun.

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈtændəm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtændəm/, [ˈtɛəndəm]

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ændəm
• Hyphenation: tan‧dem

tandem (countable and uncountable, plural tandems) (also attributive)

1. (countable) A carriage pulled by two or more draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other, both providing pulling power but only the animal in front being able to steer. [from mid 18th c.]
   • 1804, Maria Edgeworth, “The Contrast. Chapter II. Ignorance of Things, into which It is a Duty to Enquire, is the Cause of Many Odious Vices.”, in Popular Tales, volume III, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, […], [b]y C. Mercier and Co., […], →OCLC, page 30:

     [H]e was a man whose head was at this time entirely full of gigs, and tandems, and unicorns: business was his aversion; pleasure was his business.

   • 1807 August 11, Lord Byron, “Letter XVII. To Miss ——.”, in Thomas Moore, editor, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life, […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], published 1830, →OCLC, pages 118–119:

     A friend of mine accompanies me in my carriage to Edinburgh. There we shall leave it, and proceed in a tandem (a species of open carriage) through the western passes to Inverary, where we shall purchase shelties, to enable us to view places inaccessible to vehicular conveyances.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Pendennis Appears as a Very Young Man Indeed”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 31:

     Mr. Foker was no more like a gentleman now than in his school days: and yet Pen felt a secret pride in strutting down High Street with a young fellow who owned tandems, talked to officers, and ordered turtle and champagne for dinner.

   • 1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “St. Ambrose’s College”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 3:

     The chief characteristic of this set was the most reckless extravagance of every kind. […] They drove tandems in all directions, scattering their ample allowances, which they treated as pocket money, about roadside inns and Oxford taverns with open hand, and going tick for every thing which could by possibility be booked.

2. (by extension, countable)
   1. Two draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other.
      • [1903], Charles Dudley, “Equine London”, in George R[obert] Sims, editor, Living London: Its Work and Its Play, Its Humour and Its Pathos, Its Sights and Its Scenes, special edition, volume II, section I, London: Cassell and Company, →OCLC, pages 158–159, column 2:

        Later in the day the Row is empty, but, on the other hand, the pleasure horse monopolises the circle, now comparatively deserted. Singly, in pairs, tandems, and fours, he draws the family carriage with a lozenge on the panels, the brougham of the fashionable doctor, the coupé of the popular actress, the man about town's smart dog-cart.

   2. A thing with two components arranged one behind the other.

      tandem canoe    tandem engine

      1. (specifically, cycling) Short for tandem bicycle (“a bicycle or tricycle in which two people sit one behind the other, both able to pedal but only the person in front being able to steer”). [from late 19th c.]
   3. (medicine) A hollow metal tube containing radioactive material, inserted through the vagina into the uterus to treat gynecological cancer.
      • 2007, Akila N. Viswanathan, Daniel G. Petereit, “Gynecologic Brachytherapy”, in Phillip M. Devlin, editor, Brachytherapy: Applications and Techniques, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, →ISBN, page 236:

        If an interstitial implant is placed in a patient with an intact uterus, a tandem should be inserted and loaded with cesium 137 or iridium 192.

3. (figurative)
   1. (countable) A group of two or more machines, people, etc., working together; hence (uncountable), close collaboration.
      • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Stubb’s Supper”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 324:

        Stubb's whale had been killed some distance from the ship. It was a calm; so, forming a tandem of three boats, we commenced the slow business of towing the trophy to the Pequod.

   2. (uncountable, education) A method of language learning based on mutual exchange, where ideally each learner is a native speaker in the language the other person wants to learn.
      • 2007, Jane Woodin, “Intercultural Positioning: Tandem Conversations about Word Meaning”, in Regina Weinert, editor, Spoken Language Pragmatics: An Analysis of Form-Function Relations, London; New York, N.Y.: Continuum, →ISBN, page 208:

        Spanish and English tandem learners discuss the meaning of a given word in a semi-structured conversation. […] Tandem learning is the term used to describe the learning which takes place when native speakers and learners of each other's language learn from each other and help each other learn. […] Tandem learners are responsible for identifying their own needs, setting their own coals and finding means to achieve them.

tandem (not comparable)

1. One behind the other; in single file.

   Synonym: in tandem

   The horses were harnessed tandem.

   to ride tandem on a bicycle built for two

   • 1956 October, Isaac Asimov, chapter II, in The Naked Sun, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, published 1957, →OCLC, page 27:

     There was nothing too exotic about the ground-car. There were two seats in tandem, each of which could hold three.

2. (figurative) In close collaboration; collaboratively, cooperatively.

• in tandem

tandem (not comparable)

1. With two components arranged one behind the other.
2. (figurative) Working together collaboratively.

   Their skillful tandem work made the project quick and successful.

• randem

tandem (third-person singular simple present tandems, present participle tandeming, simple past and past participle tandemed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) Synonym of tandemize (“(transitive) to harness or drive (two draught animals, generally draught horses) one behind the other; to set up (two or more things, such as pieces or equipment) to work in tandem or together; (intransitive) to drive a tandem (‘carriage pulled by two or more draught animals (generally draught horses) harnessed one behind the other’)”)
   • 1861, “a retired civil engineer” [pseudonym], “Westport—The Killeries”, in Ierne. Or, Anecdotes and Incidents during a Life Chiefly in Ireland. […] (First Series), London: Partridge and Co., […], →OCLC, page 208:

     [O]ur dog-cart having come to hand, from the hilliness of the road, we tandemed the ten miles due west, along the southern shore of Clew Bay.

   • 1866 May 1, “Visits to the Paradise of Artists. IV. Pompeii.—The Enchanting Sights and Disenchanting Sounds of Naples.—Capri.”, in The Art-Journal, volume V (New Series), London: Virtue & Co., page 129, column 2:

     And sometimes these nymphs [on frescoes] are tandeming the daintiest little gryphons so pleasantly that one longs (in the dream) to be with them, not fearing a reverse.

   • 1886 July 9, “Pencilled Paragraphs”, in The Cycle, volume I, number 15, Boston, Mass.: Abbot Bassett, →OCLC, page 263, column 3:

     Hendee is located at the New Marlboro', and is tandeming with his lady friends through the Newtons daily.

   • 1898 July 16, “The Gentle Art. Harry Druidale, Fisherman, from Manxland to England. By Henry Cadman. London: Macmillan & Co. [book review]”, in [Thomas Wemyss Reid], editor, The Speaker, London: The Speaker Office, →OCLC, page 87:

     Mr. Cadman gives a humorous description of their journey, as they tandemed the donkey to drag their impedimenta up the slope of 1,200 feet.

   • 1971 November, H. Seidel, “A Microwave Feed-forward Experiment”, in The Bell System Technical Journal, volume 50, number 9, New York, N.Y.: American Telephone and Telegraph Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2892:

     [A]n excessively dissipative error cancellation delay line is unacceptable, since that line directly tandems the main power amplifier.

   • 1989, Andrew Scott [pseudonym; Lionel Trapes?], chapter 3, in The Oyster, volume IV, New York, N.Y.: Blue Moon Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 80:

     Charlotte, who I had not yet had the chance to do more than talk to, was tandeming [on a tandem bicycle] with George but each was accusing the other of not putting in their fare share of the pedalling.

   • 1990, Coyne Steven Sanders, Rainbow’s End: The Judy Garland Show, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 233:

     No strained informality this as Judy [Garland] tandemed provocative chatter with her guests Lena Horne and Terry-Thomas.

   • 2002, Regis J. (Bud) Bates, “Frame Relay”, in Broadband Telecommunications Handbook (McGraw-Hill Telecommunications), 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 205:

     Remote-office-to-remote-office communication happens by tandeming through the headquarters router. The headquarters router and port connection can become bottlenecks. Network latency increases with tandeming.

• tandem on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• tandem (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from German Tandem, from English tandem,[1] originally from Latin tandem (“at last”).[2]

• IPA^(key): [ˈtandɛm]

tandem m inan

1. tandem

Borrowed from English tandem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑn.dɛm/

• Audio

  (file)

tandem m (plural tandems, diminutive tandempje n)

1. tandem (vehicle, bicycle)
2. tandem (arrangement)
3. (biology) A phase in the mating ritual of dragonflies.
4. A pair, a couple, a duo.

< Latin tandem via English tandem

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑndem/, [ˈt̪ɑ̝nde̞m]
• Rhymes: -ɑndem
• Syllabification^(key): tan‧dem

tandem

1. tandem bicycle

   Synonym: tandempyörä

2. Synonym of jonovaljakko (“tandem”) (team of draft animals harnessed in a row).
3. (in compounds) tandem-

   Synonym: jono-

• tandemlento
• tandemhyppy
• tandempyörä
• tandem-menetelmä
• tandem-valjakko

Borrowed from English tandem.

• IPA^(key): /tɑ̃.dɛm/

tandem m (plural tandems)

1. tandem (vehicle, bicycle)

• “tandem”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• dament

Borrowed from Latin tandem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtandɛm/

tandem

1. (neologism) finally, at last, eventually

   Synonym: fine

Unadapted borrowing from English tandem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtan.dem/[1]
• Rhymes: -andem
• Hyphenation: tàn‧dem

tandem m (invariable)

1. tandem (all senses)

From tam (“so”) +‎ -dem (“new interpreted particle from īdem”). Compare with its earlier doublet: tamen. Both with original meaning supposedly "so(much)ever".

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtan.dem/, [ˈt̪än̪d̪ɛ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtan.dem/, [ˈt̪än̪d̪em]

tandem (not comparable)

1. at length, at last, finally, eventually
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.304:

     Tandem hīs Aenēān compellat vōcibus ultrō: [...].

     At last [Dido] – of her own accord – confronts Aeneas, to say to him: [...].

2. used also as an adverbial intensifier of interrogatives to a somewhat greater degree than -nam

• The particle -nam and adverb tandem (“finally”) may be added to interrogative pronouns and adverbs to add emphasis. The adverb tandem adds stronger emphasis.

• demum, postremo

• Sicilian: tannu

• “tandem”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tandem”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tandem in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN

• Hyphenation: tan‧dem

tandem m (plural tandens)

1. tandem (bicycle with two seats and two sets of pedals)

Borrowed from French tandem.

tandem n (plural tandemuri)

1. tandem

• IPA^(key): /ˈtanden/ [ˈt̪ãn̪.d̪ẽn]
• Rhymes: -anden

tandem m (plural tandems)

1. tandem
2. language exchange