Temperance

How to spell temperance

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce temperance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does temperance mean?

1. nounModeration or self-restraint, especially in eating, drinking, or behaviour.

Temperance in a sentence

• The diet plan rewarded temperance rather than strict deprivation.

• The nineteenth-century temperance movement campaigned against alcohol.

Where does temperance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin temperantia, meaning 'moderation' or 'self-restraint', which was built on the verb temperare, 'to mix in correct proportion, to regulate, to soften'. The same verb gives us the everyday word 'temper', in the sense of tempering steel or keeping one's temper, since both ideas involve holding something in careful balance. English took temperance through Old French in the 1300s, at first as one of the classical and Christian cardinal virtues, the disciplined control of appetite and emotion. By the nineteenth century the word had narrowed sharply in popular use to mean abstention from alcohol, giving rise to the great temperance movements of that era. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel, which is easy to drop or swap; remembering the link to 'temper' helps fix the 'temper-' opening.

How the word is built

• temper- (from Latin temperare: to moderate, mix in due proportion)
• -ance (noun suffix of state or quality)