Obtain, which was adopted into English in the 15th century, comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin
obtinēre, meaning "to hold on to, possess."
Obtinēre was itself formed by the combination of
ob-, meaning "in the way," and the verb
tenēre, meaning "to hold." In its earliest uses,
obtain often implied a conquest or a successful victory in battle, but it is now used for any attainment through planned action or effort. The verb
tenēre has incontestably prevailed in the English language, providing us with such common words as
abstain,
contain ,
detain,
sustain, and, perhaps less obviously, the adjectives
tenable and
tenacious.