Etymologically
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temperate

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:28. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈtɛmpəɹət/[1]

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

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