tempia

Forms

tempia f (plural tempie)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tempŭla, which replaced Latin tempora (“temples”), the neuter plural of the Latin word for the temple of the head, and became a feminine singular.^[2][3][4][5] Rohlfs saw that only such a form explains the Italian word, Old French temple and the other Romance forms, and the syncopated Late Latin templa is recorded in recipe books of the 6th and 7th centuries.^[2][6][7] The same word is French tempe, Occitan templa, Romanian tâmplă and Friulian timpli.^[3][8][1] Classical tempora itself lives on in a few places, as in Romansh tempra and Portuguese têmpora.^[2][1]

Salvioni, followed by Körting, explained the ⟨l⟩ by templa, the plural of templum in the sense “roof purlins”, so that a part of the body would be named after a part of a building;^{[9][8][10][11]} Meyer-Lübke and Devoto also assume a crossing with templum, and GRADIT allows its influence.^{[9][8][10][11]}

The origin of Latin tempus “temple” is uncertain.^[12][4] Benveniste took it as a stem in ⟨-s-⟩ from a root meaning “to beat”, comparing Ancient Greek κρόταφος (krótaphos, “temple”), from a root of the same sense, and στέμβω (stémbō, “to shake, trample”);^[2][3] Frisk pointed out the weak points of this view.^[2][3] Nocentini thinks the likeness with tempus (“time”) can hardly be chance: the temples are where the pulse is felt, and time could have been measured by its regular beat.^[3][5] Devoto, on the other hand, sees nothing in common between the two Latin words.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante, between 1300 and 1313, for the part of the head over the temporal bone;^[2][12] Zingarelli dates the word from 1287.^[2][12] In the Paradiso Dante writes that the company of exiles, not he, will have its brow broken (n'avrà rotta la tempia).^[13]

Semantic evolution

From the 14th century the plural also meant the head as a whole (Boccaccio) and the hair at the temples (Petrarch).^[14] Dante used tempie for the mind in Drizzando in vanità le vostre tempie, “turning your minds toward vanity”, a sense the dictionaries still label literary.^[11][5][4] Avere le tempie bianche, to have grey hair at the temples, means to be getting old.^[11][12]

The learned adjective temporale “of the temple” appears in 1583, and tempiale in Caro before 1566.^[2] The verb stempiarsi, to go bald at the temples, is recorded from 1940.^[3]

Timeline

• 6th–7th century – Late Latin templa is recorded in recipe books.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses tempia.^[2]
• Before 1566 – Caro uses the adjective tempiale.^[2]
• 1583 – Temporale “of the temple” is recorded.^[2]
• 1940 – Stempiarsi is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The temple: either side of the head, above the cheekbone, between the eye and the ear: un livido sulla tempia.^[11][5][6]
2. (in the plural) The head: con le tempie cinte di fiori.^[11][5][6]
3. (figurative, literary) The mind, thought.^[11][5][4]

Word family

• temporale
• tempiale
• stempiarsi

Related words

• tempio
• Latin tempus
• French tempe

Usage notes

The stressed vowel is open or closed: tèmpia or témpia.^[3][12][1] GRADIT lists an obsolete second tempia, “plank, small beam”, from Latin templa, the plural of templum “roof beam”;^[11][14][15] DEI records it at Orvieto in 1334, and Sercambi has a priest come in through the roof per le tempie, between the rafters.^[11][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 440
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3746
15. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 843