Temperament

How to spell temperament

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce temperament

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does temperament mean?

1. nounA person's or animal's natural disposition and characteristic way of reacting to situations.

Temperament in a sentence

• The manager hired her for her calm temperament under pressure.

• A gentle temperament makes this breed of dog ideal for families.

Where does temperament come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin temperamentum, which meant a 'proper mixing' or 'correct proportion', built on the verb temperare, 'to mix in due measure, to regulate or moderate'. In medieval medicine the idea took on a very specific meaning: a person's character was thought to result from the particular blend of the four bodily humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile), so your temperament was literally the mixture you were made of. English borrowed the word in the 1400s and at first used it for that physical balance of qualities, only later narrowing it to mean a person's natural disposition or characteristic frame of mind. The same temperare root gives us 'temperate', 'temper' and even 'tempera' paint, all carrying the underlying notion of careful blending or moderation. The spelling trap sits in the middle: the unstressed 'er' before 'ament' is easy to swallow when speaking, which is why people drop it and write the incorrect 'temperment'.

How the word is built

• temper (from Latin temperare: to mix in proportion)
• -ament (noun suffix denoting a resulting state)