Etymologically
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temper

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈtɛmpə/[1]
  • US: /ˈtɛmpɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English temperen or tempren,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English temprian (“to mix in due proportion; to moderate”),[5][6][3] borrowed from Latin temperō (“to mix in due proportion; to moderate, restrain oneself”).[5][6][4] Its senses were probably shaped by Old French temprer (modern French tremper and tempérer), which comes from the same Latin verb;[5][6][7][8] Old Saxon borrowed it too, as temperon.[5][6] The Latin verb is usually derived from tempus (“time, season, proper time”), so that it first meant to mix in due proportion,[9][4][8][10] but the OED notes that the history of both words is prehistoric and obscure, and Etymonline suggests that, since the root sense of tempus seems to be "stretch", the sense "restrain" may come from a shift from stretching to measuring.[5][2] tamper is a differentiated form of the same verb.[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb, to bring something to a proper condition by mixing it with something else, to dilute: Old English, in the Blickling Glosses;[5] to moderate, about 1000, in Ælfric's Homilies.[3][5] The noun, due proportion or balance of elements, is first found before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Old English already used the verb to moderate, to restrain, to regulate or govern, and to restore to health (until 1613).[5] The technical sense, bringing clay, paint and later steel to the right condition for working, is found probably before 1300 and may owe something to French;[3] Etymonline dates the hardening of steel to the late 14th century and the tuning of an instrument to about 1300.[2] The noun first referred to the mixture of the bodily humours, and Trench explains that a happy temper was the blending of the four humours in due proportion.[11][12][2] Johnson (1755) still defined it first as a due mixture of contrary qualities.[13] The humours were thought to decide a person's nature, so temper came to mean a characteristic state of mind (1595), then calmness or composure (1603);[3] the OED has composure from 1611, in Ben Jonson, and mental constitution from Shakespeare.[5] According to Ayto, the sense "set of mental traits" has largely passed to temperament.[9] The meaning "angry state of mind" is recorded from 1828,[3][2] so that, as Weekley observed, to be in a temper means the same as its logical opposite to be out of temper.[14] The hardness of tempered steel is called its temper from 1488[5] (Etymonline: the mid-15th century).[2]

Timeline

  • Old English – to bring to a proper condition by mixing.[5]
  • c. 1000 – temprian, to moderate, in Ælfric.[3]
  • c. 1300 – to tune a musical instrument.[2]
  • before 1300 – to bring clay or paint to a working condition.[3]
  • a1387 – noun, due proportion of elements.[5][3]
  • late 14th century – to harden steel.[2]
  • 1488 – noun, the hardness and elasticity of steel.[5]
  • 1595 – characteristic state of mind.[3]
  • 1603 – calm state of mind;[3] 1611 in the OED.[5]
  • 1828 – an angry state of mind.[3][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A frame of mind; mood: She was in a cheerful temper all morning.
  2. A sudden fit of anger; a tantrum.
  3. A tendency to become angry easily: He has quite a temper.
  4. Composure or self-control, especially in keep one's temper and lose one's temper.
  5. The degree of hardness and elasticity of steel or another metal.

Verb

  1. To make something less harsh or extreme by adding something else; to moderate: The coach tempered his criticism with praise.
  2. To bring a substance such as clay or paint to the right consistency by mixing or kneading.
  3. To harden and toughen steel or another metal by reheating and then cooling it.

Word family

  • temperability
  • temperable
  • temperer
  • bad-tempered
  • even-tempered
  • good-tempered
  • hot-tempered
  • ill-tempered
  • distemper
  • temperament
  • temperance
  • temperate
  • temperature
  • tamper
  • tempera
  • temporal

Usage notes

In dialect the verb kept its old sense "to mix to the right consistency": in Suffolk mortar was tempered with sand or water, in West Yorkshire butter was tempered to soften it for spreading, and in Wiltshire dripping was tempered down by melting it with water.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)