To make something less hard or rigid, or to make something less harsh or severe.
From Old English "softe" (gentle, smooth) plus the suffix "-en" (to make). Related to Gothic "saphts," the word originally described physical texture but expanded to include emotional qualities.
Water 'softens' stone through tiny persistent erosions over millennia—philosophers use this image to show how gentleness can overcome hardness through patience, which is literally how geology works!
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