borrowed from French, "tenderness," going back to Old French, from tendretender entry 1 + -esse, suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives, going back to Latin -itia (with phonetic development as if from -icia) — more at -ice
Note:
Attested in Middle English as a borrowing from Anglo-French, but the word is rare or non-existent in Early Modern English; reborrowed from French in the 18th century.-
