Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TE-NAC'I-TY, n. [Fr. tenacité; L. tenacitas, from teneo, to hold.]

1. Adhesiveness; that quality of bodies which makes them to stick or adhere to others; glutinousness; stickiness; as, the tenacity of oils, of glue, of tar, of starch, and the like.
2. That quality of bodies which keeps them from parting, without considerable force; cohesiveness; the effect of attraction; opposed to brittleness or fragility. Cyc.