a. [Parasynthetic f. tender heart + -ED2.] Having a tender heart; easily moved by † fear, pity, sorrow, or love; † timid; pitiful, compassionate; loving; impressionable.
1539. Bible (Great), 2 Chron. xiii. 7. Whan Rehoboam was young & tender hearted. Ibid. (1560), (Genev.), Eph. iv. 32. Be ye courteous one to another, & tender hearted [1539 mercyfull], forgiuing one another.
1652. Kirkman, Clerio & Lozia, 69. Tenderhearted mothers bewail the loss of their dear children.
1888. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Bootle’s Childr., vii. Terry was very tender-hearted when women and children were concerned.
Hence Tender-heartedness.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 186. Few men haue that tender-heartednesse, to account themselues … parties in the calamities of other Christians.
1655. T. Bailey, John Fisher (1739), ii. 13, heading. His excommunicating of Peter de Valence, and his tender-heartedness therein.
1798. Southey, Grandmother’s T., Poet. Wks. 1838, III. 12. She little thought This tender-heartedness would cause her death!
1876. L. Stephen, Eng. Th. in 18th C., II. XII. vii. 444. They lay a new stress upon the advantage of tender-heartedness and sympathy.
So Tender-heart, a tender-hearted person.
1904. Blackw. Mag., Oct., 513/1. Cheer up, little tender-heart.
