temperature English · revision 4137

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1450|origins=la temperare}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈtem.prə.tʃə/, US /ˈtem.pɚ.ə.tʃɚ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|temperature|t=temperate weather]],^(AHD 2000) [[bor|la|temperātūra|t=a tempering, moderation, due measure]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) or French température,^(SOED 2002)^(COED 2004) from temperātus, the past participle of [[m|la|temperāre|t=to mix in due proportion, blend, regulate; to restrain oneself]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) with the suffix -ūra ([[-ure]]).^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) It is related to [[temper]], [[temperate]] and [[temperament]].^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A tempered or temperate condition, as of the weather: about 1450 in Barnhart,^(Barnhart 1988) and “the fact of being tempered, proper proportion” in the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It first meant the state of being tempered or mixed, and later became a synonym for [[temperament]], a combination of the bodily humours or a state of mind.^(Cresswell 2021)^(SOED 2002) In the 1530s it was the character of a substance as fixed by the four qualities, hot, cold, moist and dry,^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) and “due measure, moderation” from 1536.^(OED 1989) The scientific sense, “degree of heat or cold”, is first recorded in Boyle's Of the Temperature in Submarine Regions (1670), from Latin temperatura, which Galileo had used in that sense.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) As the thermal element of weather it is by 1820,^(Etymonline) of the heat of a living body by 1876,^(Etymonline) and “a fever” by 1898.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1450 – a temperate condition.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1533 – a mixture.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1530s – the nature of a substance.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1670 – degree of heat or cold.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1876 – body heat.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1898 – a fever.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The degree of [[heat]] or [[cold]] of a body or environment.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # A particular degree of heat or cold as measured on a standard scale.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # The degree of heat in the body of a living thing.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # An abnormally high body temperature; a [[fever]]: ''running a temperature''.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # The general level of emotion or tension: ''the political temperature''.^(MW Collegiate)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[distemperature]]

+ * [[humiture]]

+ * [[absolute temperature]]

+ * [[critical temperature]]

+ * [[room temperature]]

+ * [[standard temperature and pressure]]

+ * [[temperature-humidity index]]

+ * [[transition temperature]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[temperature inversion]]

+ * [[temper]]

+ * [[temperate]]

+ * [[temperament]]

+ * [[tempering]]

+ * [[distemper]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}