temere

Forms

temere (not comparable)^[1] Ennius and Accius have an older temeriter.^[2]

Etymology

It is a fossilised locative, inherited from Proto-Italic *temezi (“in darkness, blindly”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *témHos (“darkness”), so first “in the dark”.^[3][1][4] The same root is in tenebrae (“darkness”).^[3]

Cognate with Sanskrit तमस् (támas, “darkness”), Avestan təmah- (“darkness”) and Lithuanian tamsa (“darkness”).^[3][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[3][5] Ennius has quō tam temere ītis?, “where are you going so rashly?”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Temere is “blindly, heedlessly, rashly” (Caecilius: nē temere hanc rem agās), “without reason or good cause”, and “at random, by chance” (Cicero: paints splashed at random on a board could make the outline of a face).^[4][2][1] With a negative, nōn temere means “not readily, not easily”, so “hardly ever”.^[4]

Church Latin glosses it “by chance, at random, rashly”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[3][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: quō tam temere ītis?.^[4][5]
• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius: nē temere hanc rem agās.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of paints splashed at random.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Blindly, rashly, heedlessly.^[4][2][1][6]
2. Without reason or cause.^[4][1]
3. At random, by chance.^[4][1][6]
4. nōn temere, not readily, not easily.^[4]

Word family

• temerārius
• temeritās
• temeriter
• temeritūdō
• temerō

Related words

• temerāriē
• temerātiō
• temerātor
• tenebrae

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson