Grammar girl here. What could this week's topic be? Are you on Tenderhooks? What the heck are Tenderhooks?

First, please note that it's Tenderhooks, not Tenderhooks.

To be on Tenderhooks is to be filled with painful or anxious anticipation or suspense,

such as when you're waiting for the result of an important medical test.

To figure out what a Tenderhook is, we have to know that long ago manufacturers kept freshly milled woolen cloth

from shrinking while it dried by stretching it on a wooden frame called a Tender.

It comes from the Latin word Tentis, which means to stretch.

The 1845 Encyclopedia Metropolitana or Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, volume 1, describes a Tender as, quote,

a number of vertical posts fixed to the ground, with a continuous horizontal fixed rail at the top, as long as the piece of cloth.

There are also other horizontal rails, which are fitted between the upright posts.

Both the upper and lower rails are driven full of Tenderhooks.

On these, the lists of cloth are fastened, after which the lower or movable rail is pressed downward to the full breadth of the cloth,

and then secured in its place by the pins. In this state, the pieces are left to dry, unquote.

So a Tenderhook is a metal hook that holds the cloth in place on the Tender, and the frames were set out in the fields so the wool could dry.

The Saturday magazine, volume 12, from 1838 describes the process like this, quote,

when the cloth first comes from the weaver, it's in a very rough, unsightly state, and contains a quantity of oil.

The next operation is scouring, which is performed in the filling mill. The cloth being soaked in an alkaline lie and beaten by machinery.

And it's then well-rinsed with pure water and hung on the Tenderh frames to dry, unquote.

According to Michael Quinion of the World Wide Words website, Tenders were so numerous and common that old maps of England sometimes called out certain areas as Tenderfields.

In this literal sense, the earliest reference in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1480.

And the earliest phrase I can read without butchering it is from 1518. Her nails is sharp as Tenderhooks.

The figurative meaning seems to stem from the idea that the drying cloth is being strained and stretched by the Tenderhooks,

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