obtempero

Forms

obtemperō (present infinitive obtemperāre, perfect active obtemperāvī, supine obtemperātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled optemperō, as in several laws on inscriptions.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + temperō (“to restrain oneself, moderate”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives ⟨temperō⟩ from tempus (“time”), originally Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”), from Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”); the verb's sense “to restrain, moderate” shows the shift from “stretch” to “measure”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short cite Plautus' Amphitruo, “I pay no heed to what he says”, and Terence's Adelphoe.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means “to comply with, obey”, persons, laws and forces, usually with a dative: Cicero has “listen to yourself, obey yourself”, Caesar obedience to the command of the Roman people and the authority of the senate, and Varro the helmsman who must obey reason.^[2][5] Döderlein distinguishes it from pāreō and oboediō, which express obedience as a duty: ⟨obtemperāre⟩, like ⟨obsequī⟩, is compliance of one's own will, from persuasion, respect or fear.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “obey, comply with, submit to, attend to”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[5][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of the gods heeding someone.^[5][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of obeying oneself.^[5][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of obeying the Roman people.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To comply with, obey, submit to.^[2][5][1][7]

Word family

• obtemperātiō

Related words

• temperō
• pāreō
• oboediō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de