Etymologically
Log in

intemperies

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 12:55. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

intemperiēs f (genitive intemperiēī); fifth declension[1] A plural intemperiae, -ārum (first declension) occurs in Plautus, Cato and Gellius;[2] Gellius also has the accusative intemperiēs.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + temperiēs (“due measure, mildness”).[2][3] temperiēs belongs with temperō (“to moderate”) and tempus (“time”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest citation in the OLD is Plautus' Aulularia, with the plural for madness: nescio pol quae illunc hominem intemperiae tenent, “I don't know what madness has hold of that man”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Of weather and climate it is lack of temperateness, inclemency or excess:[2] Cato has a prayer to ward off calamities and bad weather, and Livy has an inclement sky and immoderate rains.[2][5] Plautus uses it by transfer for a storm, a calamity, that has come upon a house.[5] Seneca applies it to a disordered state of the body.[2] Of the mind it is an intemperate state, madness, as in Plautus,[2] and of conduct outrageous behaviour or excess, as Cicero's friend whose outrageous behaviour he would not put up with.[2][5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of madness and of a calamity.[2][5][3]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato, of bad weather in a prayer.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a friend's outrageous behaviour.[2][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of an inclement sky.[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Of weather: lack of temperateness, inclemency; a storm, calamity.[2][5][1]
  2. A disordered state of the body.[2]
  3. An intemperate state of mind, madness.[2][5][1]
  4. Outrageous behaviour, excess.[2][5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  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 e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press