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If you’re thinking, wait, I thought it was tenderhooks, you’re not alone. Amy explains this early 18th century idiom that describes having a sense of anxious anticipation.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenterhook
Tenterhooks or tenter hooks are hooked nails in a device called a tenter.
Tenters were wooden frames which were used as far back as the 14th century in the process of making woolen cloth.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/on-tenterhooks-origin-meaning-phrase
A tenterhook is defined as “a sharp hooked nail used especially for fastening cloth on a tenter.