détente
UK /deɪˈtɑːnt/ · US /deɪˈtɑnt/ noun
Forms détentes
- noun (chiefly politics, uncountable) Relaxing of tension, especially between countries; (countable) an instance of this.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French détente (“loosening, relaxing”), from Latin *dētendita, a feminine singular participle of dētendō (“to relax”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘from; of’) + tendō (“to stretch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to stretch”)).
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “détente”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details