tendernessn.
/ˈtɛndənɪs/ The quality or state of being tender.
1.
a. Physical softness or delicacy; fragility; inability to stand rough usage; weakness, frailty; †youthfulness (obsolete); effeminacy, womanishness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > constitution of matter > softness > [noun]
neshnesseOE
softnessOE
softc1225
neshheadc1350
softheadc1350
tendernessa1387
teneritudec1440
tenerity1623
the world > life > the body > bodily constitution > bodily weakness > [noun]
wokenessc1000
unstrengthc1175
frailnessa1300
weaknessa1300
brotelhede1340
frailtyc1384
tendernessa1387
slackness1398
unmain?a1400
unmight?a1400
feebility1413
fragility1474
infirmity1590
strengthlessness1666
feebleness1684
akrasia1806
weediness1860
the world > people > person > woman > [noun] > womanly qualities or characteristics
tendernessa1387
femininityc1405
feminityc1415
womanhoodc1430
womanc1440
womanliness1538
muliebrity?1592
woman1619
feminality1646
femality1702
femineity1741
feminacy1776
feminility1824
womanism1824
feminism1841
womanness1841
feminicity1843
womanity1843
femininitude1878
the eternal feminine1892
marianismo1972
the world > matter > constitution of matter > weakness > [noun]
unfastness1398
debility1570
insolidity1578
unsoundness1605
tenderness1708
flimsiness1816
immateriality1886
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 301 Þou doost riȝtfulliche..þat confortest þe tendernesse [= newness] of my professioun.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 25337 Thoru tendernes of vr flexs.
c1430 J. Lydgate Minor Poems (Percy Soc.) 220 How myght I the woo endure, In tendrenesse of wommanheede?
1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1888) I. 19 In tendirnes of thair fleshe thay [sc. sheep] ar lyke the cattel.
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker i. sig. C1v Alas poore gentlewoman, Must she become a Nurse now in her tendernesse?
1708 J. C. Compl. Collier 13 in T. Nourse Mistery of Husbandry Discover'd (ed. 3) According to the tenderness or hardness of the Coal.
1774 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1772 258 Through the age and tenderness of the parchment, little could be read.
1856 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters IV. 356 [Such a person] can hardly be said to know what tenderness in colour means at all.
b. quasi-concrete. Tender substance.
ΚΠ
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Jer. li. 34 He fulfilde his wombe with my tendernesse.
14.. in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 627/7 Thye, crus, hepe, femur, the tendurnesse of þe thye, famen.
1548 W. Thomas Ital. Gram. & Dict. (1567) Lanugine, the tendernesse or downe of a yonge bearde.
2.
a. The quality of being tender in regard or treatment of others; gentleness, kindness, compassion, love; considerateness, mercy, leniency.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > compassion > [noun]
rutha1200
ruenessa1225
ruefulnessc1225
birewnessa1250
pityc1300
ruea1325
compassionc1340
midtholing1340
miserationa1382
rueinga1382
bowel1382
mildc1390
tendresse1390
ruefulhead?a1400
ruthnessa1400
tendernessa1400
compunction1430
bowels of compassion1526
remorse1538
commiseration1582
kindheartedness1583
commorse1595
earning1603
tender-heartedness1607
compassionateness1614
visceraa1651
ruthfulness1674
karuna1850
the mind > emotion > love > tenderness > [noun]
softnessa1200
softheadc1350
tendresse1390
consciencea1393
tendernessa1400
suavitude1512
soft-heartedness1571
tender-heartedness1607
meltingness1622
tenerity1623
tender1671
tendre1673
mild-heartedness1849
the world > action or operation > behaviour > good behaviour > kindness > gentleness or mildness > [noun]
sweetnessc1000
mildnessOE
lithenessc1175
mildshipa1200
softnessa1200
mildheadc1300
softheadc1350
mansuetudec1390
tendresse1390
tendernessa1400
gentleness?c1400
mansuetiea1500
suavitude1512
treatableness1526
placability1531
lenity1548
pleasableness1556
mollity1562
fair1599
lenitude1627
placableness1647
unaggressiveness1870
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 9994 Takening..O tendernes and truth stedfast.
a1500 (?c1450) Merlin i. 2 Grete loue he hadde to man and gret tendirnesse.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection ii. sig. Qiv As longe as suche tendernesse is to the no distraction from gostlynes.
1668 J. Owen Pract. Expos. 130th Psalm in Wks. (1851) VI. 415 What love and tenderness there is in God to receive us.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 179. ⁋3 Deformity itself is regarded with tenderness rather than aversion.
1861 Ld. Brougham Brit. Constit. (ed. 2) xix. 343 Who visited their offences with tenderness.
b. with a and plural. An instance of this.
ΚΠ
1660 F. Brooke tr. V. Le Blanc World Surveyed 284 Then there was amongst us such a tyde of tendernesses.
1850 T. T. Lynch Memorials Theophilus Trinal ix. 154 Hypocritical exhibitors of prettynesses and tendernesses.
3. Sensitiveness to impression; impressionableness, soft-heartedness; sensibility to pain, esp. when touched; crankness (of a ship).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > acuteness of physical senses > [noun] > delicacy or tenderness
tendernessc1440
daintiness1575
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > sensitiveness or tenderness > [noun]
feeling?c1400
tendernessc1440
heart1557
nicety1583
toucha1586
apprehension1605
tender-heartedness1607
sensibility1609
sensibleness1613
acuteness1644
exquisiteness1650
susceptivity1722
sensation1744
soul1748
susceptibility1753
sensitivity1773
sensitiveness1788
affettuoso1791
sensibilité1817
soulfulness1842
mild-heartedness1849
susceptiveness1873
sensitivism1877
tender-mindedness1907
the world > health and disease > ill health > pain > [noun] > sensitivity to
tenderness1709
hyperalgia1886
hyperalgesia1896
c1440 Partonope 2713 Som wept for tendyrnesse of hert.
1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits vi. 78 Memory is nothing els but a tendernesse of the braine, disposed..to receiue and preserue that, which the imaginatiue apprehendeth.
1694 R. South 12 Serm. II. 627 True Tenderness of Conscience is any Thing else, but an awfull, and exact Sense of the Rule, which should direct..it.
1709 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels IV. 176 Till the Patient be awaken'd into Tenderness and Smart, there is no Hope of a Cure.
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall III. xxix. 113 The disgrace of his daughter..wounded the tenderness, or, at least, the pride, of Rufinus.
1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xviii. 210 Judging from the extreme epigastric and abdominal tenderness during life.
1854 D. Brewster More Worlds xvi. 231 Such a tenderness of retina, that he could, in a dark night, see and distinguish plainly colours of ribands.
1887 Daily Tel. 10 Sept. 2/5 She stood up well under her canvas. She showed no signs of tenderness.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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