the compound adjective 'sweet-natured' is a relatively modern english formation, combining two deeply rooted concepts. 'sweet' originates from the old english 'swēte', which described a pleasing taste but broadened metaphorically to denote agreeable qualities in character. 'natured' derives from the latin 'natura', via old french, meaning essential quality or innate disposition. the hyphenated form emerged as a transparent descriptive term, directly linking the metaphorical pleasantness of 'sweet' with the inherent personality trait indicated by 'natured', to succinctly describe someone whose fundamental disposition is kind and amiable.

Structure: sweet (pleasant) + natured (having a specific character) sweet (old english, meaning pleasant, agreeable) + natured (english, from nature, meaning inherent character or disposition, with the suffix -ed indicating possessing that quality)