extempore

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ex tempore (“on the spur of the moment, literally out of the time”),^[2][3][4][5] from ex (“out of”) and tempore, the ablative of tempus (“time”).^[3][6][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Without premeditation or preparation, as an adverb, before 1556, in Nicholas Udall's Ralph Roister Doister:^[2] "Extempore will he dities compose".^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has about 1553,^[6] and Etymonline the 1550s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used in English as an adverb, as Ayto notes; the Latin phrase had already produced the adjectives that gave English extemporal and extemporaneous, of which only the second survives.^[4] Two adverbial uses have died out: "at once", from 1593 to 1663, and to live extempore, to live from hand to mouth, from 1679 to 1794.^[2] The noun, an improvisation, is recorded from 1610 to 1815,^[2] and the adjective from 1639, first meaning sudden or casual and, by 1665, applied to a speech or performance.^[2] Etymonline dates both noun and adjective to the 1630s.^[3] Johnson (1755) gives the adverb with a quotation from Shakespeare: "You may do it extempore; for it is nothing but roaring".^[9] Of speaking the word strictly means "without time to prepare", but now it often means merely "without notes".^[3][2] Smollett used it as a verb in Humphry Clinker in 1771, the only record of the verb.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1556 – adverb, without premeditation or preparation.^[2]
• 1593 – adverb, at once (obsolete by 1663).^[2]
• 1610 – noun, an improvised composition or performance (obsolete by 1815).^[2]
• 1639 – adjective, sudden, casual.^[2]
• 1665 – adjective, of a speech or performance, composed on the spot.^[2]
• 1679 – to live extempore, to live from hand to mouth (obsolete by 1794).^[2]
• 1694 – adjective, contrived for the occasion, makeshift.^[2]
• 1771 – verb, to extemporize.^[2]
• 1817 – adjective, of speakers and performers.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Without planning or preparation; on the spur of the moment, especially of speech or music: The mayor spoke extempore for ten minutes.^[10][6][2]
2. to live extempore (obsolete, 1679–1794): to live from hand to mouth.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. Done or spoken without preparation; impromptu: an extempore toast.^[10][6][2]
2. Of a person, speaking or performing without preparation.^[2]
3. Contrived for the occasion; makeshift.^[2]

Noun

1. (archaic) Something done without preparation; an improvisation.^[6][2]

Word family

• extemporize

Related words

• temporalize
• temporarily
• temporize
• extemporaneous
• extemporary
• temporal
• temporary

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins