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tender

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Tender, soft, comes from Latin tener; tender, to offer, from Latin tendere, to stretch; and tender, one who tends, is formed on the English verb tend.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈten.də/, US /ˈten.dɚ/[4]

tender1 soft, gentle

Etymology

It is Middle English tendre, borrowed from Old French tendre (“soft, delicate, young”), earlier tenre,[2][1][3] from Latin tener (“soft, delicate, of tender age”),[1][2] probably cognate with Greek térēn, delicate, and Sanskrit táruṇa, young,[2][1][5] perhaps from PIE Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”), through stretched, thin, weak or young.[1] The d is unetymological.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Soft, delicate, young and vulnerable: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2][1]

Semantic evolution

Kind, affectionate, loving, and easily pained, are from the late 13th century,[1] and expressing sensitive feelings from about 1300.[1] Of food, soft and easy to chew, it is from the mid-13th century,[1] and of plants, not hardy, from the late 14th century.[1] Susceptible to moral influence is 16th-century.[3] Word Origins traces tender loving care to Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, and its abbreviation TLC to the 1940s.[6] Tender-hearted is from 1539 and tenderfoot, a newcomer to pioneer life, American English from 1849.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1200 – soft, young.[2]
  • mid-13th century – of food.[1]
  • late 13th century – affectionate.[1]
  • 1539 – tender-hearted.[2]
  • 1849 – tenderfoot.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Easily cut or chewed; not tough: a tender steak.
  2. Painful when touched; sore.
  3. Young and vulnerable: at a tender age.
  4. Gentle, kind and affectionate.
  5. Of plants, easily damaged by cold.

Verb

  1. To make tender.

Word family

  • tenderly
  • tenderness
  • tenderize
  • tender-hearted
  • tenderfoot

tender2 offer

Etymology

It is Middle English tendren, borrowed from Old French tendre (“to offer, hold forth”),[1][2][3] from Latin tendere (“to stretch, extend”) (see tend),[1][2] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).[1] The keeping of the French infinitive ending is unusual, compare render.[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To offer formally, as a plea, oath or evidence, and especially money in payment: about 1400 in Etymonline,[1] 1542–43 in Barnhart.[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a formal offer, is also from 1542–43.[2] A written offer to supply goods or services at a stated price, a bid, is a commercial sense,[7] and money offered in payment, as in legal tender, a further one.[7] A tender offer to buy a company's shares is American English from 1964.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – to offer formally.[1]
  • 1542–43 – the noun.[2]
  • 1964 – tender offer.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To offer formally: to tender one's resignation.

Noun

  1. A formal offer, especially a written bid to supply goods or services at a stated price.
  2. Money offered in payment: legal tender.

Word family

  • legal tender

tender3 attendant, vessel

Etymology

It is probably an agent noun formed from Middle English tenden, to attend to (see tend), and -er.[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who tends another, an attendant or nurse: about 1470.[2][8]

Semantic evolution

A vessel attending warships to supply provisions is from 1675 (the 1670s),[2][8][1] and a railway car carrying fuel and water for a steam locomotive from 1825.[2][8] One who looks after a machine or business, as in bartender (1836), is from 1825.[1][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1470 – an attendant.[2]
  • 1675 – a supply vessel.[2]
  • 1825 – a locomotive tender.[2]
  • 1836 – bartender.[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A person who looks after something: a bartender.
  2. A boat that ferries supplies or passengers between a ship and the shore.
  3. A railway car behind a locomotive carrying fuel and water.

Word family

  • bartender

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press