Considering that the three words tutor, mentor, and tentor are used almost
interchangeably, could 'tentor' be a neologism based on tentir and
influenced by 'mentor' and probably also 'tutor'? Hybrid Dutch-English
constructions are quite common nowadays.

While searching for 'mentor' I came across the following passage:

Guru adalah pendidik dan pengajar pada pendidikan anak usia dini jalur
sekolah atau pendidikan formal, pendidikan dasar, dan pendidikan menengah.
Guru-guru seperti ini harus mempunyai semacam kualifikasi formal, antara
lain:
* Dosen
* Mentor
* Tentor
* Tutor

On 21 April 2011 18:00, BAHASA automatic digest system <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> There is 1 message totalling 33 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
>  1. Dari mana kata Tentor?
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:09:21 +0200
> From:    Waruno Mahdi <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Dari mana kata Tentor?
>
> Well, it's _tentir_ that was borrowed from Dutch, and thus reveals some
> acquaintance with that language (quite normal amongst intellectuals and
> students in the 1950-s),
> whereas _tentor_ seems indeed to be a recent concoction based on _tentir_,
> and actually betrays practically zero knowledge of Dutch ;)
> Meanwhile, I did some more looking up last night, and found that the
> word _tenteren_ was not borrowed into Dutch from Latin _tentare_,
> but apparently from French _tenter_ 'to attempt, to tempt' instead,
> that in turn originates from the Latin.
>
> -- Waruno
>
>
>
> >  Those seem to be reasonable conclusions, but what is especially
> interesting
> >  is the relatively late appearance or re-emergence of _tentor_  if indeed
> >  from _tentir_, considering how few Indonesians now have any useful
> command
> >  of Dutch. It is still a bit of a puzzle in that respect. After being
> here
> >  for nearly 30 years I first encountered it only last year. One more
> >  possibility: it could have been a regional term that only spread with
> the
> >  saturation of the Internet in society. I Googled and found a lot of
> >  advertisements for tentor in the sense of a private teacher or tutor.
> >
> >  Thanks//Ray
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of BAHASA Digest - 20 Apr 2011 to 21 Apr 2011 (#2011-2)
> ***********************************************************
>



-- 
Dr. Uli Kozok
Associate Professor
Indonesian-Malay Language Program
2540 Maile Way, Spalding 255
Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Tel: +1.808. 956 7574
Fax: +1.808. 956 5978
http://www.hawaii.edu/indolang
http://bahasa.net/online