TENDER PARNEL, subs. phr. (old).—1.  A mistress; also PARNEL, PERNEL; see TART. Hence (2) ‘a very nicely Educated creature, apt to catch Cold upon the least blast of wind’ (B. E.), ‘As TENDER as PARNELL, who broke her finger in a posset drink’ (GROSE). Also ‘as TENDER AS A CHICKEN,’ and ‘AS TENDER AS A PARSON’S LEMAN. (RAY.)

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  1362.  LANGLAND, Piers Plowman, 2790.

        And dame PERNELE a preestes fyle,
Pioresse worth she nevere,
For she hadde child in chirie-tyme.

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  1546.  HEYWOOD, Proverbs, 45 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 505]. The morals of the clergy are glanced at where a woman is said to be ‘TENDER AS A PARSON’S lemman.’

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  1560.  T. BECON, Prayers and Other Pieces (1844), 267. Pretty PARNEL [= a nickname for a priest’s mistress].

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  d. 1575.  PILKINGTON, Works [Parker Society], 56. But these TENDER PERNELS must have one gown for the day, another for the night.

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