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temperantia

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word temperantia

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
116–27 BC, Varro
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*temp-os)

Forms

temperantia f (genitive temperantiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from temperāns (“moderate, self-restrained”), the present participle of temperō (“to moderate, restrain”), with the suffix -ia.[2][1][3] De Vaan derives the verb from ⟨*tempes-āje-⟩, made on the s-stem of tempus (“time”), Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”), from Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”); its sense “to restrain, modify” shows the shift from stretching to measuring also seen in templum (“sacred precinct”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro has temperantia loquentis, the restraint of the speaker;[2] Köbler gives Cicero as its first author.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is self-control, moderation or restraint as a moral quality, the virtue that governs the desires and the movements of the mind.[2][5][1] In Apuleius' De mundo it is balance or equilibrium, of the order of the universe.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “temperance, moderation, self-control”,[6] and in medieval Latin it also means climate.[7] Through Anglo-French it gave English temperance in the mid-14th century, also as the name of a cardinal virtue.[8]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a speaker's restraint.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero.[3]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of the balance of the universe.[2][3]
  • mid-14th century – English temperance.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Self-control, moderation, restraint, temperance.[2][5][1][6]
  2. Balance, equilibrium.[2]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Climate.[7]

Usage notes

Döderlein notes that modus in a moral sense is the objective mean, “nothing in excess”, while modestia and moderātiō are the corresponding subjective qualities.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
Cite this entry

“Temperantia.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/temperantia. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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