Etymology and origin of the English word tempo
tempo1 rate of movement
Etymology tree of tempo1
From the same root · tempo1
Etymology
It is borrowed from Italian tempo (“time”),[2][3][4][5][6] inherited from Latin tempus (“time, season, portion of time”),[2][3][4][7] the source of temporal.[3][4] Barnhart notes that it is a doublet of the grammatical noun tense.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
As a fencing term, the timing of an attack: 1688, in Randle Holme's Academy of Armory,[2][8][9] a sense now obsolete.[2] In music, the relative speed of a piece: 1724,[2][3][4][6] in a glossary of foreign words found in music books.[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1680–90.[10]
Semantic evolution
In music the word names the speed at which a piece or passage is played, usually marked by a direction such as allegro or by a metronome figure,[11][6] and the characteristic pace of a dance, as in tempo di minuetto.[2] The plural is tempi or tempos.[11][3][6] The extended sense, the rate of motion or activity of anything, is first recorded in 1898, in Shaw's You Never Can Tell,[2][3][4] and to raise the tempo from 1914.[2]
Timeline
- 1688 – (fencing) the timing of an attack (obsolete).[2]
- 1724 – (music) the speed of a piece.[2][4]
- 1898 – the rate of any activity, in Shaw.[2][4]
- 1914 – to raise the tempo.[2]
Modern meaning
Noun
- (music) The speed at which a piece or passage is played: The second movement should be taken at a slower tempo.
- The rate or pace of an activity: the hectic tempo of city life.
Word family
- downtempo
- midtempo
- uptempo
tempo2 Japanese coin
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1860, R. H. Dana
- Ultimate origin
- Japanese
Etymology
It is a borrowing from Japanese,[2][8][6][12] from the name Tempō, also written Tenpō, of the period of Japanese history from 1830 to 1844, when the coin was first minted.[2][8]
Earliest recorded meaning
An oval bronze coin of Japan with a square hole in the centre: 1860, in the journal of Richard Henry Dana.[2][13]
Semantic evolution
The coin was first minted in 1835,[2][8] and its fuller name was tempo tsuho, current treasure of the Tempō era.[2][12] It circulated until 1891.[12]
Timeline
- 1860 – the coin, in Dana's journal.[2]
Modern meaning
Noun
Related words
- temporal
- tense
- temper
- temporary
- contemporary
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ 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
- ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
- ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
- ^ a b c Evans, Tom (1997), A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press
- ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Tempo.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tempo. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.
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