Here (in condensed form)
they are. (1) The act of stretching. (2) In _mechanics_, stress or
the force by which something is pulled. (3) In _physics_, a
constrained condition of the particles of bodies. (4) In _statical
electricity_, surface-density. (5) Mental strain, stress, or
application. (6) A strained state of any kind, as political or social. (7)
An attachment to a sewing-machine for regulating the strain of the thread.
Now of these definitions (2), (3), (4), and (7) are too highly specialized
to conduct us, of themselves, into the highway of the word's meaning. They
bear out, however, the evidence of (1), (5), and (6), which have as their
core the idea of stretching, or of the strain which stretching produces.
We must now lay the original meaning alongside the central meaning today,
in order to draw our conclusions. We perceive that the two meanings
correspond. Yet by prying into them we make out one marked difference
between them. The original meaning is literal, the modern largely
figurative. To be sure, the figure has been so long used that it is now
scarcely felt as a figure; its force and definiteness have departed.
Consequently we may speak of being on a tension without having in mind at
all a comparison of our nervous system with a stretched garment, or with
an outreaching arm, or with a tightly strung musical instrument, or with a
taut rope.
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