Made softer or less hard; became gentler or less severe in manner or tone.
From Old English 'softe,' meaning soft or gentle, possibly from Old Saxon. Added the suffix '-en' to create a verb, common Germanic pattern for creating verb forms from adjectives.
English uses the same word for both physical softening (like softening butter) and emotional softening (like softening your stance), showing how our brains treat concrete and abstract changes using the same metaphor.
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