different between tenderness vs strength

English

Etymology

tender +? -ness

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t?n.d?.n?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t?n.d?.n?s/
• Hyphenation: ten?der?ness

Noun

tenderness (countable and uncountable, plural tendernesses)

1. a tendency to express warm, compassionate feelings

   When the lovers were together, their cold indifference gave way to love and tenderness.

   • 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette

     I had known him jealous, suspicious; I had seen about him certain tendernesses, fitfulnesses—a softness which came like a warm air, and a ruth which passed like early dew, dried in the heat of his irritabilities: this was all I had seen.

2. concern for the feelings or welfare of others

   When they saw the poor orphans, they were overwhelmed with tenderness for them.

3. pain or discomfort when an affected area is touched

   He noted her extreme tenderness when he touched the bruise on her thigh.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong +? -th. Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /st???k?/, [st??????k?], [st?????n??]
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): [st??????k?]
• Rhymes: -???, -?n?

Noun

strength (countable and uncountable, plural strengths)

1. The quality or degree of being strong.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5,^[1]

     Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.

   Antonym: weakness

2. The intensity of a force or power; potency.
   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

3. The strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 46.1,^[2]

     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

   • 1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution, London: Francis Ash, Part 1, Section 4, Discourse 2, p. 66,^[3]

     […] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […] .

4. A positive attribute.

   Antonym: weakness

5. (obsolete) An armed force, a body of troops.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 3,^[4]

     Thou princely leader of our English strength,

     Never so needful on the earth of France,

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act II, Scene 1,^[5]

     That done, dissever your united strengths,

     And part your mingled colours once again;

6. (obsolete) A strong place; a stronghold.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 7, lines 140-143,^[6]

     All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

     This inaccessible high strength, the seat

     Of Deitie supream, us dispossest,

     He trusted to have seis’d […]

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

strength (third-person singular simple present strengths, present participle strengthing, simple past and past participle strengthed)

1. (obsolete) To strengthen (all senses). [12th-17th c.]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:strengthen