temprian

Forms

temprian (weak verb; past tense temprode, temprede)^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin temperō (“to moderate, mix in due proportion”).^[1][3][2] Durkin lists it among the verbs that Old English borrowed from Latin, with the senses “to modify; to cure, heal; to control”.^[4] Köbler compares Old Norse tempra, Old Saxon temperōn and Old High German temparōn, and refers the Latin verb to tempus (“time”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is of the prefixed form ġetemprian in Bald's Leechbook, a manuscript of the mid-tenth century: a mixture is to be made like mustard getemprod to inwisan, “tempered to a sauce”.^[6][7] In Ælfric's First Series of Catholic Homilies (prob. 990) a man may mid soþum læcecræfte his lichaman getemprian, “treat his body with true medicine”.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller give two senses: “to mix in due proportion”, which renders Latin temperabam in the Blickling glosses, and “to temper, regulate, moderate”, as the sun tempers the fruits of the earth in the Leechdoms.^[2] In the Liber Scintillarum it translates temperare for restraining the heat of gluttony.^[2] Holthausen and Köbler add “to cure, heal” and “to subdue”, and Durkin “to control”.^[3][5][4] It survived as Middle English temperen, tempren, now temper.^[1]

Timeline

• s. x med. – getemprod “mixed, tempered” in Bald's Leechbook.^[6][7]
• s. x ex. – his lichaman getemprian “treat his body” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[8][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. to mix in due proportion, to mingle.^[2][1]
2. to temper, regulate, moderate.^[2][3]
3. to cure, heal.^[3][4]
4. to control, subdue.^[3][4]

Word family

• ġetemprian

Descendants

• Middle English temperen (→ English temper)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 976
3. ^ a b c d e Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 345
4. ^ a b c d Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 119
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. temprian
6. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
7. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 407