Word: temper Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“(transitive) to divide or proportion duly, to moderate, to regulate; (intransitive) to be moderate, temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal. Pronunciation: /ˈtɛmpə/, /ˈtɛmpɚ/ 1. A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: to have a good, bad, or calm temper Example: A noble temper dost thou show in this; 2. State of mind; mood. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Remember with what mild / And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d / Without wrauth or reviling; Example: […] 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; 3. A tendency to become angry. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Mind your hasty temper! Example: He has quite a temper when dealing with salespeople. 4. Anger; a fit of anger. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: an outburst of temper Example: When I heard about it I got myself into a terrible temper. 5. Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: to keep one's temper; to lose one's temper; to recover one's temper Example: Reſtore your ſelues, vnto your temper, Fathers; / And, vvithout perturbation, heare me ſpeake: […] 6. Constitution of body; the mixture or relative proportion of the four humours: blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: […] 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. 7. Middle state or course; mean; medium. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. 8. The state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; due mixture of different qualities. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: the temper of mortar 9. The heat treatment to which a metal or other material has been subjected; a material that has undergone a particular heat treatment. Labels: countable, uncountable 10. The state of a metal or other substance, especially as to its hardness, produced by some process of heating or cooling. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: the temper of iron or steel Example: 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. 11. Milk of lime, or other substance, employed in the process formerly used to clarify sugar. Labels: countable, historical, uncountable Example: 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. 12. A non-plastic material, such as sand, added to clay to prevent shrinkage and cracking during drying or firing; tempering. Labels: countable, uncountable