tenero

Forms

tenero (feminine tenera, masculine plural teneri, feminine plural tenere, superlative tenerissimo, adverb teneramente)^[1] The mountain dialect of Pistoia has tèndero.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tener (“soft, delicate; young”).^[3][4][5][1] The derivative tenerezza goes back to a Vulgar Latin *teneritia, found across the Romance languages, beside classical tenerĭtās and tenerĭtūdō.^[3][6]

The word is pan-Romance: French tendre (whence the English word tender), Occitan tenre, Catalan tendre, Spanish tierno, Portuguese terno, Sardinian ténneru and Romanian tînăr (“young”).^[4][7]

DELI notes that the Latin adjective has no clear Indo-European match, but connects it with the root Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”) of teneō (“to hold”), tendō (“to stretch”) and tenuis (“thin”);^[3][4][1] Nocentini and Wiktionary also derive it from that root.^[3][4][1] De Vaan instead suggests a metathesis of an older Proto-Italic *terVno- (“soft”), comparing Greek and Indo-Iranian adjectives in Proto-Indo-European *teru- and the Sabine terenus (“soft”) that Macrobius reports.^[8] Tommaseo had already compared Ancient Greek τέρην (térēn, “tender”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Zucchero Bencivenni, 1310, in the sense “not hard, or less hard than usual”.^[3] GRADIT dates the word before 1320, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli to the 13th century.^[5][4][10]

Semantic evolution

Petrarca, in 1374, uses tenero for what yields to the touch: Qualor tenera neve per li colli / dal sol percossa veggio di lontano (“whenever I see from afar soft snow on the hills struck by the sun”).^[3][11] The sense “very young”, of people, appears in the 14th century, in a life of Saint Margaret and in Boccaccio, and “newly sprouted”, of plants, in Sannazaro before 1530.^[3]

The figurative senses are Boccaccio's, in the Decameron (1348–53): gentle and easily moved, and expressing tenderness.^[3] Boccaccio also used it for “zealous, solicitous” and for “weak”, senses now obsolete.^[5][6] As a noun, il tenero was the soft part of something by about 1350, in the vernacular Crescenzi; the sense “affection, fondness”, as in c'è del tenero, is dated 1939–40.^[3] In agriculture grano tenero is soft wheat, the kind ground into flour as opposed to durum wheat.^[12]

Timeline

• 1310 – Zucchero Bencivenni uses tenero for what is not hard.^[3]
• 1348–53 – Boccaccio uses it for gentle feelings and for what expresses tenderness.^[3]
• c. 1350 – The noun tenero, the soft part of something, appears in the vernacular Crescenzi.^[3]
• 1374 – Petrarca writes of tenera neve, soft snow.^[3][11]
• Before 1530 – Sannazaro uses it for newly sprouted plants.^[3]
• 1939–40 – The noun in the sense “affection” is recorded by Palazzi.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. soft, not hard; easily cut, scratched or worked: Il pino è un legno tenero.^[5][10][13]
2. Yielding to pressure, pliable: una tenera argilla.^[5][10]
3. Of food, tender, easy to cut and chew: Questa bistecca è tenerissima.^[5][10][13]
4. Young, newly born or sprouted: tenera età, early childhood.^[5][13][14]
5. Of a colour, pale, delicate: un lilla tenero.^[5][10][13]
6. Easily moved, soft-hearted; also indulgent: Con i nipoti è sempre stato troppo tenero.^[5][13][14]
7. affectionate, loving; expressing tenderness: una voce tenera.^[5][13][14]
8. Arousing tenderness, cute: Che tenero quel gattino!^[5][1]
9. (obsolete) Solicitous, careful; weak.^[5][14]

Noun

1. The soft part of something: il tenero del sedano.^[13][15][14]
2. Fondness, affection between people: Secondo me tra quei due c'è del tenero.^[13][14][15]
3. (uncommon) A weak point: colpire nel tenero.^[14][15]

Word family

• intenerire
• tenerezza
• tenerone
• tenerume
• intenerimento
• tenerità
• teneramente
• tenerino
• teneritudine

Related words

• tenue
• tendere
• Latin tener
• French tendre

Usage notes

The stressed vowel is open, /ˈtɛnero/; a close /e/ is regional.^[1] Set phrases include tenera età, grano tenero and pietra tenera, a stone that can be sawn.^[5][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 985
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3750
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana