Relenting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To gradually ease one's strictness or obstinacy while displaying compassion or leniency towards others in the process of changing one's mind
2. To show a reduction in intensity or severity by demonstrating kindness or forgiving tendencies after a period of being unyielding
3. To lessen one's resolute or harsh attitude, demonstrating compassion or forgiveness in one's change of heart towards others over time

Etymology: The surprising twist here is that "relent" once meant the opposite of softening: it started out as a word about becoming soft in the literal, physical sense. Its ancestor is Latin "lentus", meaning "soft, pliant, slow", which came from a sense of something bending or giving way. Medieval speakers used the related idea of yielding or bending, and that physical pliancy gradually turned into the figurative softening of a hard attitude. The word reached English through Anglo-Norman "relentir", where the Latin prefix "re-" was added to the root "lentare", meaning "to bend". Middle English then took it on as "relenten". The earliest recorded English use dates to 1526, so the figurative sense of giving way on a demand or a harsh judgment was already well established by the sixteenth century.

Synonyms: yielding, softening, backing down, giving in, acquiescing

Antonyms: resisting, withholding, stubborn, unyielding, inflexible