Origin and history of tent

c. 1300, tente, "portable shelter of skins or coarse cloth stretched over poles," from Old French tente "tent, hanging, tapestry" (12c.), from Medieval Latin tenta, etymologically "something stretched out," noun use of fem. singular of Latin tentus "stretched," variant past participle of tendere "to stretch" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch").

The notion is of the "stretching" of hides, etc. over a framework. The tent-caterpillar or web-worm, larva of a type of North American moth, is so called by 1854, from the tent-like silken webs in which they live gregariously.

"to camp in a tent," 1856, in tenting it, from tent (n.). Earlier it meant "to pitch a tent, pitch one's tent" (1550s). Earlier still as "stretch cloth, etc." (c. 1400), perhaps as a back-formation from tenter "wooden frame used to stretch cloth." Related: Tented; tenting.