Etymologically
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temperi

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Forms

temperī (comparative temperius, no superlative)[1] The form temporī is also found, in Cato and Cicero.[2][3][4] Plautus and Gellius also have tempere.[3] The comparative also appears as temporius, in Nepos and Columella.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin tempus (“time”), an old locative case form of the noun.[2][1] Georges and Lewis & Short treat it as an old ablative instead.[3][4] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *tempos- (“stretch, measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *temp-os (“stretch”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus, who uses it of coming or doing something at the appointed time, for instance of cooking a dinner in time in the Stichus.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a word of comedy and of Cato,[3] who writes temporī of farm work finished in time.[4] The comparative temperius, “earlier, sooner”, is found in Cicero, Ovid and Columella.[6][3] In the Aulularia Plautus puns on the other sense of the noun tempus, the temple of the head.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the sense “at the right time”.[4][6][7]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses the form temporī.[4][3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the comparative temperius, “earlier”.[6][3][7]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses the comparative.[6][7]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. At the right time, in good time, seasonably.[2][4]
  2. (comparative) Earlier, sooner, in better time.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de