tenro

Forms

tenro (feminine tenra, masculine plural tenros, feminine plural tenras)^[1] Medieval spellings include tenrra and tenrros (14th–15th century) and tenrro.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tener (“soft, tender, delicate”).^[2][3][5] Wiktionary gives the oldest form as Old Galician-Portuguese tẽero.^[1] The same Latin word gave terno¹ “tender, affectionate”, a divergent form with metathesis, which Nascentes notes took the emotional senses while this word kept the physical one.^[2][5][1]

The same Latin word is Galician tenro, Spanish tierno, Catalan tendre, French tendre, Italian tenero and Romanian tânăr “young”.^[6][1] Corominas dates the Spanish word to the early 14th century.^[7]

The further origin of the Latin word is disputed: de Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic adjective meaning “soft”, comparing Ancient Greek τέρην (térēn, “soft, delicate”) and Sanskrit तरुण (táruṇa, “young, tender”), with its consonants later swapped, and notes that a Sabine word for “soft” quoted in late antiquity fits this.^[8] Wiktionary also gives the older connection with Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to the 14th century in Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese, already in three senses: soft, delicate, and recent.^[2] The Horto do Esposo, in a copy of 1390–1437, has the spelling tenrro.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense “soft, easy to cut or chew” and the figurative ones “delicate” and “new, recent” are all medieval.^[2] Bluteau (1712–1728) defines it as the opposite of hard and notes its natural and metaphorical uses.^[9] Morais (1789) adds idade tenra “the age of a child or youth”, a tenro Christian “a new convert, not yet firm”, and the old use of tenro for terno “affectionate”, which Houaiss marks as obsolete.^[10][2] The phrase tenra idade “early childhood” remains the commonest figurative use.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, with the senses “soft”, “delicate” and “recent”.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – tenrro in the Horto do Esposo.^[4]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau glosses it with Latin tener.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais records idade tenra.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. tender, soft (mole): easy to cut, break or chew: um bife tenro.^[2][12][1]
2. (figurative) Delicate, dainty (mimoso).^[2][13]
3. (figurative) New, recent (recente); not long in existence: um namoro ainda tenro.^[2][13]
4. Young; of a child: small and innocent;^[2][11][14] tenra idade, tenros anos “infancy”.^[2][11][14]
5. Not yet fully grown: um vitelo tenro.^[2][13]
6. Green and fresh, lush (viçoso).^[2][15]
7. (obsolete) Affectionate, the same as terno¹.^[2][14]

Word family

• tenramente

Related words

• Latin tener
• Galician tenro
• Spanish tierno

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tenro
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tenro
4. ^ a b c Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tenrro
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tenro
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8645
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 487
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. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tenro
10. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 451
11. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tenro
12. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8901
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tenro
14. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. tenro
15. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. tenro