temper
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɛmpə/
ipa: /ˈtɛmpɚ/
rhymes: -ɛmpə(ɹ)
Forms: form: tempers
form: tempre
Etymology: From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“I divide or proportion duly, I moderate, I regulate; intransitive senses I am moderate, I am temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.
Senses: examples: text: to have a good, bad, or calm temper
text: A noble temper dost thou show in this;
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
text: And it was peculiar in their Temper, that they were fonder of what they could get by Rapine or Stealth at a greater diſtance, than much better Food provided for them at home.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Great Love of His Native Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 262:
text: […] when she smiled, the Sweetness of her Temper diffused that Glory over her Countenance, which no Regularity of Features can give.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 2, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 141:
text: I am of a cautious temper, and unwilling to risk my happiness in a hurry.
ref: 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter IV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
text: […] Amy smiled without bitterness, for she possessed a happy temper and hopeful spirit.
ref: 1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 26, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
text: […] it appeared as if to be alone in the great house of his fathers suited his temper.
ref: 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
glosses: A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.
examples: text: Remember with what mild / And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d / Without wrauth or reviling;
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1046-1048:
text: […] I must testify from my Experience, that a Temper of Peace, Thankfulness, Love and Affection, is much more the proper Frame for Prayer than that of Terror and Discomposure;
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 193:
text: [H]er temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and reverie.
ref: 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
text: ‘You should be careful not to irritate her, James. Her temper has been soured, remember, and ought not to be tried.’
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 29, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
text: She bowed to him, to put him in a good temper.
ref: 1950, Nevil Shute, chapter 3, in A Town Like Alice, London: Heinemann, published 1952, page 94:
glosses: State of mind; mood.
examples: text: to have a hasty temper
text: He has quite a temper when dealing with salespeople.
text: “I guess you’ve got a spice of temper,” commented Mr. Harrison, surveying the flushed cheeks and indignant eyes opposite him.
ref: 1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 3, in Anne of Avonlea:
text: ‘What a temper you’ve got, Wormold.’
‘I’m sorry. Drink takes me that way.’
ref: 1958, Graham Greene, chapter 5, in Our Man in Havana, Penguin, published 1969:
text: His criticism of Inés makes him bristle. Nonetheless, he holds his temper in check.
ref: 2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 28, in The Childhood of Jesus, London: Harvill Secker, page 251:
glosses: A tendency to become angry.
examples: text: an outburst of temper
text: When I heard about it I got myself into a terrible temper.
text: Hortense remained for several days in a condition of sullen anger—she was a cloud lit up by occasional unaccountable flashes of temper.
ref: 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 28, in Bertram Cope’s Year:
text: Jill suddenly flew into a temper (which is quite a likely thing to happen if you have been interrupted in a cry).
ref: 1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 1, in The Silver Chair, London: Geoffrey Bles, published 1965:
text: […] she banged the door as she left as though in temper and walked to her car.
ref: 1999, Colm Tóibín, chapter 4, in The Blackwater Lightship, New York: Scribner, page 110:
glosses: Anger; a fit of anger.
examples: text: to keep one's temper; to lose one's temper; to recover one's temper
text: Reſtore your ſelues, vnto your temper, Fathers; / And, vvithout perturbation, heare me ſpeake: […]
ref: 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act IIII:
text: Teach me like thee, in various Nature wiſe, / To fall with Dignity, with Temper riſe; [...]
ref: 1734, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle IV, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 79, lines 372–373:
text: “And I think, madam,” said the Lord Keeper, losing his accustomed temper and patience, “that if you had nothing better to tell us, you had better have kept this family secret to yourself also.”
ref: 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XXII, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
text: [H]er temper was rarely ruffled, and, if we might judge by her appearance, she was always happy.
ref: 1857, Anthony Trollope, “Barchester by Moonlight”, in Barchester Towers. […], volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, →OCLC, page 288:
text: Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure.
examples: text: […] it is hard to say, whether [Christ’s] pain was more shamefull, or his shame more painfull unto him: the exquisiteness of his bodily temper, increasing the exquisiteness of his torment, and the ingenuity of his Soul, adding to his sensibleness of the indignities and affronts offered until him.
ref: 1650, Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof, London: John Williams, Book 3, Chapter 12, p. 345:
glosses: Constitution of body; the mixture or relative proportion of the four humours: blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy.
examples: text: The perfect lawgiver is a just temper between the mere man of theory, who can see nothing but general principles, and the mere man of business, who can see nothing but particular circumstances.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 86:
glosses: Middle state or course; mean; medium.
examples: text: the temper of mortar
glosses: The state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; due mixture of different qualities.
glosses: The heat treatment to which a metal or other material has been subjected; a material that has undergone a particular heat treatment.
examples: text: the temper of iron or steel
text: Between two blades, which bears the better temper: […] / I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement; / But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, / Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
glosses: The state of a metal or other substance, especially as to its hardness, produced by some process of heating or cooling.
examples: 1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica” in Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, pp. xciv-xcv,
All cane juice is liable to rapid fermentation. As soon, therefore, as the clarifier is filled, the fire is lighted, and the temper (white lime of Bristol) is stirred into it. The alkali of the lime having neutralized its superabundant acid, a part of it becomes the basis of the sugar.
qualifier: sugar manufacture
glosses: Milk of lime, or other substance, employed in the process formerly used to clarify sugar.
topics: architecture
qualifier: pottery
glosses: A non-plastic material, such as sand, added to clay to prevent shrinkage and cracking during drying or firing; tempering.
Synonyms: sense: tendency of mood
word: disposition
sense: tendency of mood
word: temperament
sense: (fit of) anger
word: rage
Coordinate terms: sense: Heat treatment
word: quenching
Derived terms: bad temper
bad-tempered
even-tempered
good-tempered
hot-tempered
ill-tempered
keep one's temper
lose one's temper
out of temper
quick-tempered
short temper
short-tempered
sweet-tempered
temper foam
temper of the times
temper screw
tempersome
temper tantrum
temper temper
Related terms: contemper
distemper
temperament
temperance
temperate