intemperate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English intemperat,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin intemperātus (“untempered, inclement, immoderate”),^[5][6][7][8] formed from in- (“not”) and temperātus (“restrained, moderate”),^[6][2][9] the past participle of temperō (“to moderate”).^[6][5] The OED notes that, as a passive participle in origin, the Latin word applied first to things and actions, and was then transferred to persons.^[5] Johnson also compared French intempérant.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Given to excessive indulgence in a passion or appetite: about 1430, in Lydgate's Minor Poems.^[5][4] Etymonline gives the late 14th century,^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged the 14th,^[2] and Dictionary.com 1400–50,^[11] while the Oxford Dictionary of English takes “inclement” as the late Middle English sense.^[12]

Semantic evolution

By the early 16th century the word went beyond appetite: in 1508 it described people and their actions as immoderate or violent, and in 1526 things as excessive or extreme, especially weather: “I wyll..nat departe, for all this intemperate heate.”^[5] Leybourn used it of climatic zones, “either Temperate or Intemperate”, and the Shorter Oxford calls the weather sense now rare.^[8][5] Johnson (1755) set out “immoderate in appetite”, including “drunken” and “gluttonous”, and “passionate; ungovernable”.^[10] The narrow sense “addicted to alcohol” is in the OED from 1680, and Collins now lists it first.^[5][2][13] A verb, to make intemperate or disorder, is recorded only in 1654.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1430 – given to excessive indulgence in a passion or appetite.^[5][4] Etymonline dates this sense to the late 14th century.^[6]
• 1508 – of persons or actions, immoderate, unbridled, violent.^[5]
• 1526 – excessive, extreme, especially of weather.^[5]
• 1654 – verb, to make intemperate; to disorder (obsolete).^[5]
• 1680 – given to immoderate use of alcohol.^[5][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lacking restraint; immoderate or violent: He regretted his intemperate remarks.^[2][13][5]
2. Given to excessive indulgence in a passion or appetite.^[2][13][5]
3. Given to excessive drinking of alcohol.^[2][13][5]
4. (rare) Of weather or climate, extreme or inclement.^{[5][8][2][13]}

Word family

• intemperately
• intemperateness

Related words

• intemperance
• temperate
• temper
• temperance

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
4. ^ a b c Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins