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▪ I. temperament, n.|ˈtɛmpərəmənt|
Also 5 temperment.
[ad. L. temperāmentum due mixture, f. temperāre to temper: see -ment. So Fr. tempérament (16th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
I.
†1. A moderate and proportionable mixture of elements in a compound; the condition in which elements are combined in their due proportions.
a1412Lydg. Two Merch. 303 Yiff..heete or blood passe his temperament, In to a fevere anoon a man it leedith. 1576Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 50 Crasis or Temperament..is an agreement, and conveniency of the first qualities and Elements among themselves: Or, an equall mixture or proportion of the qualities of the Elements, wherein no excesse blame-worthy or faulty is to be found. 1658Phillips, Temperament, a moderate and proportionable mixture of any thing, but more peculiarly of the four humours of the body. 1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. iv. 124 The cure of a wasting Flux..consists in the restitution of the temperament. 1684J. P. tr. Frambresar. Art Physick i. 18 A Temperament is a proportion of the four chief Elementary Qualities proper for the true exercise of the Natural Functions.
†2. State or condition with respect to the proportion of ingredients or manner of mixing; consistence, composition; mixture. Obs.
1471Ripley Comp. Alch. iv. xiv. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652) 147 A temperament not so thyk as the Body ys, Nother so thyn as Water. 1610P. Barrough Meth. Physick viii. (1639) 469 Boyle it again until it come to the temperament of an ointment. 1641Milton Reform. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 57 The best founded Commonwealths..have aym'd at a certaine mixture and temperament, partaking the severall vertues of each other State. 1660N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. ii. (1682) 203 That the Soul is not a Temperament of Corporeal Humours is manifest. a1673J. Caryl in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxvi. 12 A due temperament of heat and cold, of dryness and moistness.
II.
†3. In the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages: The combination of supposed qualities (hot or cold, moist or dry) in a certain proportion, determining the nature of a plant or other body (= complexion n. 1); characteristic nature; known spec. as universal temperament (cf. 6). Obs.
1471Ripley Comp. Alch. i. xviii. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652) 133 For soe to temperment ys brought our Stone, And Natures contraryose, fower be made one. 1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxvi. 97 Some men write of this herbe [Water Plantayne], that it is of temperament colde and dry. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 209 Let no man attribute to all salts one temperament. 1665G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. India 70 Of temperament, 'tis held to be hot, and good to promote digestion. a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. iv. 153 The experience of various temperaments and operations of those Herbs.
4. The condition of the weather or climate as resulting from the different combinations of the qualities, heat or cold, dryness or humidity; climate. Obs. or arch.
1610P. Barrough Meth. Physick iv. xiii. (1639) 245 Of all temperaments of the aire, the worst is that which is hot and moist. 1684R. Waller Nat. Exper. 10 Not onely from the season of the Year, and temperament of the Air, but from the Nature of the Soils and Countries themselves. 1713Derham Phys.-Theol. i. ii. 17 The Cause assigned to malignant, epidemical Diseases;—and that is, an hot and moist Temperament of the Air. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 459 Change of air..where the difference of temperament, or even of temperature, can be rendered very considerable. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 492 The temperament of their seasons is such that they have no disease.
†5. Condition with regard to warmth or coldness; = temperature 7. Obs.
1658A. Fox Würtz' Surg. iv. i. 304 Wound Unguents and wound Plaisters should alwaies stand in one temperament. a1704Locke Elem. Nat. Phil. xi. (1754) 51 Bodies are denominated hot and cold in proportion to the present temperament of that part of our body to which they are applied. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. iii. 352 To keep up your Heat to the same Temperament. 1799Phil. Mag. III. 419 A given quantity of cold water, or water of any given temperament.
6. In mediæval physiology: The combination of the four cardinal humours (see humour n. 2 b) of the body, by the relative proportion of which the physical and mental constitution were held to be determined; known spec. as animal temperament; also, The bodily habit attributed to this, as a sanguine temperament, choleric temperament, phlegmatic temperament, or melancholic temperament (see the adjs.). See temper n. 8.
In modern use the term temperament and the names of the four temperaments continue, without any theory of combination of humours.
1628Feltham Resolves ii. [i.] xxx. 95 Though the soule be not caused by the body; yet in the generall it followes the temperament of it. 1652Bp. Hall Invisible World ii. §1 Galen was not a better Physician than an ill Divine, while he determines the soul to be the complexion and temperament of the prime qualities. 1657Tomlinson Renou's Disp. 10 That [Medicament]..which..doth work a manifest mutation on our bodies,..either in temperament, in matter or form. 1676Dryden Aurengzebe Ded., Our Minds are perpetually wrought on by the Temperaments of our Bodies. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., The ancient physicians brought these animal temperaments to correspond with the universal temperament..: the sanguine temperament was supposed to coincide with hot and moist, the phlegmatic with cold and moist [etc.]. 1818T. L. Peacock Nightmare Abb. i, This gentleman was naturally of an atrabilarious temperament. 1836A. Walker Beauty in Wom. 202 The ancients classed individuals in one or other of four temperaments, founded on the hypothesis of four humours,..the red part [of the blood], phlegm, yellow, and black bile... Hence were derived the names of the sanguine, the phlegmatic, the choleric, and the melancholic temperaments. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xxxi. 421 Edward Fitzgerald, labourer,..temperament sanguineous.
7. Constitution or habit of mind, esp. as depending upon or connected with physical constitution; natural disposition; = temper n. 9.
1821Byron Juan iii. liii, He was a man of a strange temperament. 1842Mrs. Browning Grk. Chr. Poets 135 The poetic temperament. 1843Lytton Last Bar. iii. v, Despite this general smoothness of mien, his temperament was naturally irritable [and] quick. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Truth Wks. (Bohn) II. 55 A slow temperament makes them less rapid and ready than other countrymen. 1868M. E. Braddon Dead Sea Fr. III. v. 64 Visions..such..as the man of sanguine temperament can always evolve. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life i. iv. (1875) 25 The active temperament likes physical action for its own sake. 1891Speaker 2 May 534/1 The unbiassed temperament which is essential to the true historian. 1894W. B. Carpenter Son of Man amg. Sons of Men v, Temperament is a convenient phrase to describe those qualities and dispositions which belong to him from birth.
III. The action or fact of tempering.
8. Moderating, moderation; lightening, alleviation, mitigation; due regulation. Obs. or arch.
1475Rolls of Parlt. VI. 144/2 That a dewe moderation and temperament be observed. 1576Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 2 Unlesse he have the knowledge of his owne body, and be ripe and skilfull in the temperament thereof. 1697Bp. Patrick Comm. Exod. xxii. 11 But there were some Temperaments of this Law; for every Man was not admitted to purge himself by an Oath. 1861Temple Bar Mag. IV. 54 That a certain temperament of speed was ensured.
9. The action of duly combining or adjusting different principles, claims, etc.; adjustment, compromise. Obs. or arch.
1660Trial Regic. 12 There is that excellent Temperament in our laws, that..the King cannot rule, but by His Laws. 1678Sir G. Mackenzie Crim. Laws Scot. ii. xxiv. §6 (1699) 261 By this just Temperament, the Interest of the Common⁓wealth, and the Imbicility of Minors are both salved. 1686F. Spence tr. Varillas' Ho. Medicis 52 The friends of Piero..propounded a temperament which equally fitted the king of Naples and duke of Milan's turn. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 86 These admit no temperament and no compromise. 1794― Corr. (1844) IV. 253 There is no medium,—there is no temperament, there is no compromise with Jacobinism. 1818Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) II. iv. 43 As a fortunate temperament of law and justice with the royal authority.
b. A middle course or state between extremes of any kind; a medium, mean. Obs. or arch.
1604R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Temperament, temperatenesse, meane, or due proportion. 1656Blount Glossogr., Temperament,..a moderation, mean or measure. 1697tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 45 Wearied and tired, roasted by the heat of the Sun, or frozen by the Snows (for there is seldom any Temperament between these Two Extreams). 1741Middleton Cicero II. xi. 476 Rewards and punishments; in which..as in every thing else, a certain medium and temperament is to be observed. 1823Bentham Not Paul 249 The causes..of this temperament—this mezzo termino—this middle course. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. ii. §4. 88 A judicious temperament, which the reformers would have done well to adopt in some other points.
10. Mus. The adjustment of the intervals of the scale (in the tuning of instruments of fixed intonation, as keyboard instruments), so as to adapt them to the purposes of practical harmony: consisting in slight variations of the pitch of the notes from true or ‘just’ intonation in order to make them available in different keys; a particular system of doing this. (Sometimes extended to any system of tuning, including that of just intonation.)
The chief temperaments that have been practically used are mean-tone temperament (see mean tone); and equal temperament (now almost universal), in which the octave is divided into twelve (theoretically) equal semitones, so that the variations of pitch are evenly distributed throughout all keys.
1727–41Chambers Cycl., Temperament,..in music, denotes a rectifying or mending the false or imperfect concords, by transferring to them part of the beauty of the perfect ones. 1788Cavallo in Phil. Trans. LXXVIII. 242 This alteration of the just lengths of strings, necessary for adapting them to several key-notes, is called the temperament. 1881Broadhouse Mus. Acoustics 354 Mean tone temperament was perfected by Salinas, a.d. 1577. Ibid. 356 The principle usually adopted at the present day for all keyed instruments is that called ‘Equal Temperament’, which professes to divide the octave into twelve exactly equal parts, though it does not actually so divide it. 1898Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 437/1 The question of melodic progressions, as affecting the excellence of temperaments, is too extensive for our limits.
▪ II. ˈtemperament, v. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To endow with a temperament; in ˈtemperamented, ˈtemperamenting ppl. adjs.
1855Emerson Woman Misc. (1884) 349 Men are not to the same degree temperamented. 1870― Soc. & Solit., Work & Days Wks. (Bohn) III. 70 The earth with its foods; the intellectual temperamenting air;..are given immeasurably to all. |