retinue: [14] A retinue is etymologically ‘that which is retained’. The word was borrowed from Old French retenue, the feminine past participle of retenir ‘keep, restrain’ (source of English retain [14]). This in turn went back via Vulgar Latin *retenēre to Latin retinēre ‘hold back’, a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘back’ and tenēre ‘hold’ (source of English contain, obtain, etc). The notion behind retinue is of a body of men ‘retained’ in one’s service. Another English descendant of retinēre is rein. => contain, detain, obtain, rein, retain