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temporary, a. (n.)|ˈtɛmpərərɪ|
[ad. L. temporāri-us, f. tempus, tempor- time: see -ary.]
A. adj.
1. a. Lasting for a limited time; existing or valid for a time (only); not permanent; transient; made to supply a passing need.
1547–64Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) 60 The authority of princes & gouernors..is truely to be called temporarie, that is, but for a time. a1628Preston New Covt. (1634) 45 The creature is temporary, whereas the soul is immortall. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xix. 99 For their perpetuall, and not temporary security. 1777Cook Voy. Pacific ii. vii. (1784) I. 292 A large space had been cleared, before the temporary hut of this Chief. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. iv. ix. 293 The adaptation of temporary expedients to temporary exigencies. 1858J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) III. v. i. 434 Inconveniences which they felt to be only temporary.
b. temporary hardness, hardness of water that can be removed by boiling, because it is due to bicarbonates which are thereby precipitated; temporary star (Astron.), a star which appears suddenly, shines for a time, and then almost or entirely disappears; temporary tooth, a deciduous tooth, milk-tooth.
1802Med. Jrnl. VIII. 559 The first teeth, or those of childhood, the author calls temporary, the set which succeeds them he terms permanent. 1833Herschel Astron. xii. 383 The phænomena we allude to are those of temporary stars. 1842E. Wilson Anat. Vade M. (ed. 2) 51 The Temporary teeth are 20 in number, 8 incisors, 4 canine, and 8 molars. 1895H. Collet Water Softening & Purification i. 2 The temporary hardness is that due to the bicarbonates of lime and magnesia. 1969Temporary hardness [see permanent hardness s.v. permanent a. (n.) 1 d].
†c. Belonging or relating to the particular time; of the period; hence, of passing interest, ephemeral. ? Obs. (or merged in 1).
1777Burke Corr. (1844) II. 164, I send you a trifling temporary production, made for the occasion of the day, and to perish with it. 1778Musgrave 25 Apr., in Boswell Johnson, A temporary poem always entertains us. 1805W. Cooke S. Foote I. 152 Though it [‘Devil upon Two Sticks’] admits of some temporary strokes, such as the ridicule on the college of physicians,..&c., [it] exhibits them worked up in so brilliant and general a manner, as to be always new.
d. Designating one who is commissioned for the duration of a war (esp. that of 1914–18), as temporary captain, temporary officer, etc. Also temporary gent(leman) (in colloq. or pejorative Services' use); abbrev. T.G. s.v. T 6 a.
1918Barrie Echoes of War 68 Socially he had fallen..; even..in his uniform the hasty might say something clever about ‘temporary gentlemen’. 1925W. Deeping Sorrell & Son ii. 21 ‘My name is Sorrell, Captain Sorrell.’ ‘You will have to drop the ‘captain’. Temporary, I suppose?’ 1938S. Beckett Murphy x. 234 He withheld his hand, the little temporary gent and pure in heart. 1958S. Raven in H. Thomas Establishment 72 Temporary Captain C.C. had been in the very first intake at Sandhurst. 1976N.Y. Rev. Bks. 5 Feb. 20/3 The lower-middle-class officer..who in the First World War would have been called a ‘temporary gentleman’. 1983T. Pocock 1945: Dawn came up like Thunder v. 151 There were two officers' messes—‘A’ and ‘B’; the former primarily for staff officers..the latter, mostly made up of temporary officers.
†2. Belonging to the present life or this world: = temporal a.1 2. Obs.
(In quot. 1603, of a person: ‘not a meddler with temporal or secular affairs’.)
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. v. i. 145 Duke. Know you that Frier Lodowick that she speakes of? Peter. I know him for a man diuine and holy, Not scuruy, nor a temporary medler, As he's reported by this Gentleman. 1668Howe Bless. Righteous (1825) 63 In our temporary state, while we are under the measure of time. 1674Owen Holy Spirit (1693) 207 Spiritual and Eternal things are more excellent than things Carnal and Temporary. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 153 ⁋13 The wise use of temporary riches.
†3. Metaph. Occurring or existing in time (not from eternity). Obs. (Cf. temporal a.1 6.)
a1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. ii. 69 Collectively they make up a good moral evidence touching a temporary inception of the humane Nature. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §31. 39 They who conceived the World to have had a Temporary Beginning or Creation, held the Coevity of all Souls with it. 1701Norris Ideal World 327 These truths are temporary, because those relations could not begin to exist before those created beings were produced.
†4. = temporal a.1 4. Obs. rare.
a1656Ussher Ann. To Rdr. ⁋10 That from the evening ushering in the first day of the World, to that midnight which began the first day of the Christian æra, there was 4003 years, seventy dayes, and six temporarie howers.
B. n.
†1. pl. Things belonging to this life, temporal goods. Cf. temporality 1 b. Obs.
1596H. Clapham Briefe Bible ii. 218 Wee haue taken Bread and other temporaries without begging them at thy hands. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 172 A large Castle, which now by age or war (the canker-worms of all temporaries) is moth-eaten.
†2. A person whose religious life or devotion endures only for a time. (In allusion to Matt. xiii. 21, etc.) Obs. (In quot. 1903 used (? by misunderstanding) for: a time-server, temporizer.)
1619W. Sclater Exp. 1 Thess. (1630) 59 Our Temporaries, or rather Temporizers..are carried full saile to the profession of Faith; whom yet the least note of reproach..makes ready to deny and abiure the Truth. 1647Trapp Comm. 2 Cor. xiii. 8 A temporary may so fall away as to persecute the truth that he once professed. [1903A. Smellie Men of Covt. xxiii. (1904) 253 A Temporary,—one who tries year in and year out to ‘carry his dish level’, and adjusts his sails to catch the changing winds.]
†3. A contemporary. Obs.
1649Alcoran 6 We left this punishment, as an advertisement to their temporaries and posteritie.
4. A person employed or holding a post temporarily; a ‘casual’; spec. a secretary or clerical worker supplied by an agency to cover absences or vacancies for a short period.
1848Dickens Dombey iii, Being only a permanency I couldn't be expected to show it like a temporary. 1892Pall Mall G. 7 Oct. 7/1 The ‘permanent temporaries’ are liable to dismissal at any time, but are practically fixed, some having been in the service from eight to ten years. 1907Westm. Gaz. 1 July 7/2 Servants who are merely casuals (i.e., temporaries) in purely private families. 1956C. Blackstock Dewey Death vii. 159 Temporaries came, and temporaries went..and the work produced [was] shocking beyond belief. 1957R. Hart-Davis Let. 7 July in Lyttelton–Hart-Davis Lett. (1979) II. 123 This might have been possible if my secretary hadn't been on holiday. Instead I was burdened with a pudding-faced ‘temporary’. 1970New Yorker 17 Oct. 148/1 (caption) But Mr. Clark! I'm just a temporary. |