Tender

Tender - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

TEND'ER, n. [from tend.] One that attends or takes care of; a nurse.

1. A small vessel employed to attend a larger one for supplying her with provisions and other stores, or to convey intelligence and the like.

2. In law, an offer, either of money to pay a debt, or of service to be performed, in order to save a penalty or forfeiture which would be incurred by non-payment or non-performance; as the tender of rent due, or of the amount of a note or bond with interest. To constitute a legal tender, such money must be offered as the law prescribes; the offer of bank notes is not a legal tender. So also the tender must be at the time and place where the rent or debt ought to be paid, and it must be to the full amount due.

There is also a tender of issue in pleadings, a tender of an oath, _c.

3. Any offer for acceptance. The gentleman made me a tender of his services.

4. The thing offered. This money is not a legal tender.

5. Regard; kind concern. [Not in use.]

TEND'ER, v.t. [L. tendo.]

1. To offer in words; or to exhibit or present for acceptance.

All conditions, all minds tender down

Their service to lord Timon.

2. To hold; to esteem.

Tender yourself more dearly. [Not in use.]

3. To offer in payment or satisfaction of a demand, for saving a penalty or forfeiture; as, to tender the amount of rent or debt.

TEN'DER, a. [L. tener; allied probably to thin, L. tenuis.]

1. Soft; easily impressed, broken, bruised or injured; not firm or hard; as tender plants; tender flesh; tender grapes. Deu 32. Song 2.

2. Very sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.

Our bodies are not naturally more tender than our faces.

3. Delicate; effeminate; not hardy or able to endure hardship.

The tender and delicate woman among you. Deu 28.

4. Weak; feeble; as tender age. Gen 33.

5. Young and carefully educated. Prov 9.

6. Susceptible of the softer passions, as love, compassion, kindness; compassionate; pitiful; easily affected by the distresses of another, or anxious for another's good; as the tender kindness of the church; a tender heart.

7. Compassionate; easily excited to pity, forgiveness or favor.

The Lord is pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5.

Luke 1.

8. Exciting kind concern.

I love Valentine;

His life's as tender to me as his soul.

9. Expressive of the softer passions; as a tender strain.

10. Careful to save inviolate, or not to injure; with of. Be tender of your neighbor's reputation.

The civil authority should be tender of the honor of God and religion.

11. Gentle; mild; unwilling to pain.

You that are so tender o'er his follies,

Will never do him good.

12. Apt to give pain; as, that is a tender subject; things that are tender and unpleasing.

13. Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; pathetic; as tender expressions; tender expostulations.

ten'-der: The usua1 (11 out of 16 times) translation of rakh, "soft," "delicate," with the noun rokh, in De 28:56 and the verb rakhakh, in 2Ki 22:19 parallel 2Ch 34:27. Attention need be called only to the following cases: In Ge 29:17, "Leah's eyes were tender," a physical defect is described ("weak-eyed"; see BLINDNESS). "Tender-hearted" in 2Ch 13:7 means "faint-hearted," while in 2Ki 22:19 parallel 2Ch 34:27 ("because thy heart was tender"), it means "penitent." Contrast the modern use in Eph 4:32.

Throughout Psalms (10 times) and Proverbs (12:10), but not elsewhere (the King James Version has "tender love" in Da 1:9, the Revised Version (British and American) "compassion"), English Versions of the Bible translate rachamim, "bowels," by "tender mercies," and this translation has been carried into the New Testament as "tender mercy" (the Revised Version margin "heart of mercy") for the corresponding Greek phrase splagchna eleous ("bowels of mercy") in Lu 1:78; compare "tenderhearted" for eusplagchnos ("right boweled") in Eph 4:32, based upon the idea of psychology widely spread among Semitic people, which considers the "bowels" (qerebh) as the seat of all tender emotions of kindness and mercy: See BOWELS. the King James Version also has "of tender mercy" in Jas 5:11 without justification in the Greek (oiktirmon, the Revised Version (British and American) "merciful").

Other special phrases: "tender grape" in the King James Version, So 2:13,15; 7:12, for cemadhar. The meaning of the word is not quite certain, but Revised Margin's "blossom" (except 7:12 margin) is probably right. "Tender grass" in 2Sa 23:4; Pr 27:25; the Revised Version (British and American) De 32:2 (the King James Version "tender herb"); Isa 15:6; 66:14 for deshe' "grass" (Aramaic dethe', Da 4:15,23). The context in these passages and the meaning of the cognates of deshe' in other Semitic languages make this translation probable, but Revised Version's usage is not consistent (compare Ge 1:11,12; Job 6:5; Ps 23:2, etc.). Isa, 53:2 has "tender plant" for yoneq, "a sapling," while Job 14:7 has "tender branch" for the allied word yoneqeth, usually rendered "shoot" (Job 8:16, etc.). Finally, "tender" in Mr 13:28 parallel Mt 24:32 is for hapalos, "soft." The running sap of springtime softens the branches that were stiff during the winter.

The verb "tender" occurs in 2 Macc 4:2, the King James Version "(he had) tendered his own nation," in the modern sense of "tend." The translation is a paraphrase of the noun kedemon, "a protector," the Revised Version (British and American) "the guardian of his fellow-countrymen."

Burton Scott Easton