Temperance
Ultimately, temperance comes from Latin tempus, “time”. No one knows where Latin picked up tempus – most likely from some nearby language, such as Etruscan. In any case, it’s also the root of words such as temple, temporary, tempo, extemporize, and tempest. From tempus came the Latin verb temperare, “to mix properly, moderate, blend”, in the sense of cooking or preparing something to the proper time. This was the source of temper (Old English temprian), and also of the Latin noun temperantia, “moderation”. Temperantia was borrowed into Anglo-French (i.e. the French spoken by the upper-classes in England after William the Conqueror) as temperaunce, which became temperance by the mid-1300’s.
The very oldest versions of the Temperance Tarot card show a figure mixing water into wine, thereby showing temperantia, moderation.
The primary syllable of temperance suggests a path or process that is brought to a halt — not an arbitrary halt, but one that is manifested specifically for this purpose. The idea is that a stretch of time or an activity is given a boundary, which of course is the at the heart of temperance. The other syllables of temperance indicate that setting this boundary confers greater energy, and allows a powerful narrowing towards a goal.
Thanks to Adam for suggesting this word of the day!
August 10th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
[...] Lilly has also blessed us with his own special take on the word Temperance in his Word of the Day blog. He discusses the origins of the word, its actual meaning, rather than [...]