the word 'tended' is built upon the verb 'tend', which entered english in the 14th century from old french 'tendre', itself derived from latin 'tendere', meaning 'to stretch, extend, aim'. the core semantic notion of 'stretching toward' something evolved into two primary branches in english. one branch, via the sense of 'being directed or inclined', gave rise to the meaning of having a habitual disposition. the other, influenced by the shortening of 'attend', developed the meaning of caring for or looking after something, implying a directed effort. the addition of the regular '-ed' suffix, common in germanic languages for forming past tenses, creates the form 'tended', which simply indicates this action or state occurred in the past.

as the past tense and past participle form of the verb 'tend', it is not segmented into separate morphemes. the base verb 'tend' originates from the latin verb 'tendere', meaning 'to stretch, strive, extend, proceed'. the '-ed' suffix is a middle english inflectional ending used to form the past tense and past participle of regular verbs.