tendre

tendre¹ tender

Etymology tree of tendre¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin tener

French tendre

Italian tenero

Old French tendre

Spanish tierno

From the same root · tendre¹

French tendresse ← tendre

Forms

tendre m (feminine tendre)^[1]

• tenre, tandre^[2][3]

The form without ⟨d⟩, tenre, was current in Old French beside tendre.^[3]

Etymology

The word for tender is inherited from Latin tener (“soft, delicate”), taken in its accusative form tenerum.^[1][4][5][6] The DHLF finds no matching form in any other language and sets aside a link with Greek; it notes that the word is usually brought near the family of teneō and tendō.^[3] De Vaan instead reconstructs Proto-Italic *terVno- “soft”, with the consonants later swapped, and compares Sanskrit तरुण (táruṇa, “young, tender”) and Ancient Greek τέρην (térēn, “soft, delicate”).^[7] Its Romance cognates include Italian tenero, Spanish tierno, Portuguese terno, Old Occitan tenre, Catalan tendre and Romanian tânăr (“young”), and Welsh borrowed it as tyner.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Vie de saint Alexis, which the TLFi dates to about 1050 and the DEAF bibliography to about 1090; there the word means young and fresh.^[9][2][10] Godefroy prints a line of the same poem on the saint's body: La tue carn tendre “your tender flesh”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The DHLF puts the sense “young, fresh” first; from it came “yielding, easily cut or chewed” (about 1200), “delicate, soft” of a person (about 1155) and, in the moral sphere, “easily hurt” (1080).^[3] The TLFi dates tendre coer “a feeling heart” to the Roland and the sense “easy to chew” to Jean Bodel about 1200.^[9] The affectionate sense grew in the 14th century, and the old senses “soft, delicate” and “touchy” went out of use after the 17th century.^[3] The word continues as French tendre.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1090 – tendre “young” in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050 by the TLFi's dating).^[2][10][9]
• c. 1100 – tendre coer “a feeling heart” in the Chanson de Roland.^[9]
• 1100–1133 – the first insular record cited by the AND.^[12]
• c. 1200 – “easy to chew” in Jean Bodel's fabliaux.^[9]
• c. 1200 – tenre in the Vie de saint Jehan Bouche d'Or, in a Picard manuscript of 1370.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. young, fresh, of tender age.^[9][12]
2. soft, yielding; of food, easy to chew.^[12][14]
3. delicate, frail, easily hurt.^[12]
4. sensitive, easily moved; kind, loving.^[12][3]
5. morally weak, open to temptation.^[12]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the adjective tendre 3 and first cites it from the first third of the 12th century, with senses from “soft, yielding” and “freshly baked” (of bread) to “kind, friendly”, “young, inexperienced” and “morally weak”.^[12] Middle English took it about 1200 as the word that became the English tender, first “immature, having the delicacy of youth”.^[15]

Descendants

• Middle French tendre (→ French tendre)^[16][9]

tendre² to stretch

Etymology tree of tendre²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin tendō

French tendre

Italian tendere

Old French tendre

Romanian tinde

Spanish tender

English tendon

From the same root · tendre²

Latin attendō ← tendō

Latin contendō ← tendō

Latin distendō ← tendō

Latin extendō ← tendō

Latin intendō ← tendō

Latin obtendō ← tendō

Latin ostendō ← tendō

Latin portendō ← tendō

Latin praetendō ← tendō

Latin prōtēlum ← tendō

Latin prōtendō ← tendō

Latin tenda ← tendō

Latin tēnsilis ← tendō

Latin tēnsiō ← tendō

Latin tensor ← tendō

Latin tentipellium ← tendō

Latin tentōrium ← tendō

Romanian întinde ← tendō

Romanian pretinde ← tendō

French tendresse ← tendre

Forms

tendre (present participle tendant; past participle tendu; first-person singular present tent)^[1]

• tandre^[17][18]

Etymology

The word for stretching is inherited from Latin tendō (“to stretch, extend”).^{[1][19][6][20]} The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance verb meaning “to hand to someone; to stretch; to unfold”, with cognates in every branch except Dalmatian,^[21] among them Italian tendere, Spanish tender, Portuguese tender and Catalan tendre.^[20][6] De Vaan derives the Latin verb from Proto-Italic *tend- and Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”), the root that also gave teneō.^[22]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is the Clermont Passion at the end of the 10th century, where the verb means to hold something out to someone, and the same text uses it for stretching out a part of the body.^[9][18] Godefroy prints its line Sus en la cruz li ten l'azet “up on the cross he holds out the vinegar to him”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Roland already stretches a bow and pitches a tent with it, and Godefroy prints its line Sun destre guant en ad vers Deu tendut “he has held out his right glove towards God”.^[9][11] By about 1175 one set traps with it, and Chrétien de Troyes hoisted sails.^[9] The intransitive tendre a “to aim at, strive for” appears in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence in 1174–1176, and the FEW records tendre de “to strive to” in the Roland.^[9][19] The word continues as French tendre.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – tendre “to hold out” in the Clermont Passion (end of the 10th century by the TLFi).^[18][9]
• c. 1090 – the future tendra in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[23][10]
• c. 1100 – tendre un arc and tendre un tref in the Chanson de Roland.^[9]
• 1121–1125 – the first insular record cited by the AND.^[24]
• 1174–1176 – tendre a “to aim at” in Guernes's Life of Thomas Becket.^[9]
• 1176 – tendre une voile “to hoist a sail” in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to stretch, draw tight; to draw a bow.^[24][9]
2. to hold out, offer, present.^[24][9]
3. to pitch a tent; to hang tapestries; to hoist a sail.^[24][9]
4. to set a snare or net.^[24][9]
5. (law) to tender a sum, plea or proof.^[24]
6. tendre a: to aim at, strive for; to head towards.^[9][19]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the verb tendre 1 and first cites it from 1121–1125, with insular senses such as offering a sum of money in discharge of a debt, tendering a suit or proof in court, and stretching fulled cloth on a frame; it heads tendre 2 “to heed” separately, from the early 13th century.^[24][25] Middle English took the verb as tenden “to stretch, extend”, the source of the English word tend, and later as tendren “to offer formally”, the English verb tender.^[26][15]

Descendants

• French tendre^[1]
• Norman tendre^[1]