intemperantia

Forms

intemperantia f (genitive intemperantiae); first declension^[1] Aurelius Victor has an ablative intemperantie, from a fifth-declension intemperanties.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin intemperāns (“unrestrained”) + -ia.^[3][2][1] The adjective is in- with temperāns (“moderate”), the participle of temperō (“to restrain, moderate”), which de Vaan derives from tempus (“time”); he traces that noun to Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”), and sees in temperō the shift from stretching to measuring.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[5] who reports in the Tusculans that it is called the source of all disturbances of the mind;^[6] the OLD's first examples are in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, of reckless, unrestrained behaviour.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a lack of self-control or restraint, extravagance or violence, and so incontinence or licentiousness.^[3][6] With a genitive it is immoderate indulgence in something, as Cicero's “intemperance of the passions”.^[3] In a physical sense it means the inclemency of the weather or climate, as in Seneca and Columella, and Apuleius has it of an abnormal colour.^[6][3] In medieval Latin it means bad weather.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of intemperance as the source of the passions.^[6][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of the inclemency of the sky.^[6][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of an abnormal colour.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of self-control, extravagance, violence.^[3][6][1]
2. Incontinence, licentiousness.^[3]
3. Immoderate indulgence in something, intemperance.^[3][6][1]
4. Immoderateness of physical conditions; inclemency of weather.^[3][6][7][1]
5. Insolence, insubordination.^[1]

Related words

• intemperans
• temperantia
• temperō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill