temperate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English temperat,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin temperātus (“tempered, regulated, restrained, moderate”), the past participle of temperō (“to moderate, regulate, mix in due proportion”),^{[6][7][2][5][8]} the verb behind temper.^[6][7][3] The Oxford Dictionary of English glosses the participle "mingled, restrained".^[9] Barnhart finds an earlier form tempret about 1310.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of persons, not swayed by passion; gentle, forbearing, translating Latin modestus: about 1380, in Wyclif's works.^[6][7] Etymonline also records the climatic sense in the late 14th century,^[7] and Barnhart finds tempret, of mild temperature, as early as about 1310.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From restraint of passion the word extended to moderation in general: of things not excessive in degree (1398, in Trevisa),^[6] and of moderation in eating and drinking (about 1430, in Lydgate).^[6][7] The climatic sense, neither too hot nor too cold, is recorded in the OED from the 15th century,^[6] and temperate zone, each of the belts of the earth between the tropics and the polar circles, from 1556 in the OED, 1551 in Barnhart and the 1550s in Etymonline.^[6][5][7] From 1560 a temperate monarchy was a limited, constitutional one, a use now obsolete or archaic.^[6] Later technical uses include music (1876), where it means tempered,^[6] microbiology (1953), of a virus that can live in a bacterium without destroying it,^[6] and food grown in a moderate climate (1960).^[6] Johnson (1755) gave first the sense "not excessive; moderate in degree of any quality".^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – of persons, not swayed by passion; forbearing.^[6][7]
• 1398 – of things, not excessive; moderate.^[6]
• c. 1430 – moderate in eating and drinking.^[6]
• before 1475 – of weather or climate, mild.^[6]
• 1556 – temperate zone.^[6] Barnhart dates the phrase 1551.^[5]
• 1560 – of a monarchy, limited (now obsolete or archaic).^[6]
• 1876 – in music, tempered.^[6]
• 1953 – in microbiology, of a bacteriophage.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a climate or region, mild, neither very hot nor very cold; especially, lying between the tropics and the polar regions: a temperate forest.^[11][12][6]
2. Moderate and restrained; not extreme: She gave a temperate reply to a hostile question.^[12][11][6]
3. Moderate in satisfying one's appetites or desires; abstemious.^[12][6]
4. (music) Tempered.^[6]
5. (microbiology) Of a bacteriophage, able to live within a host cell without destroying it.^[6]

Word family

• temperately
• temperateness
• intemperate
• nontemperate
• untemperate
• temperate zone

Related words

• temper
• temperature
• temperance
• temperament
• distemper

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster