Wiktionary

temperance

See also: Temperance and tempérance

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Anglo-Norman temperance, from Latin temperantia (“moderation, sobriety, discretion, self-control”), from temperans, present participle of temperare (“to moderate”). See temper. English equivalent temper +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈtɛmpəɹəns/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: tem‧per‧ance

Noun

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temperance (countable and uncountable, plural temperances)

  1. Habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence.
    temperance in eating and drinking
    temperance in the indulgence of joy
    • 1628, William Prynne, Healthes Sicknesse. Or, a compendious and briefe Discourse; prouing the Drinking, and Pledging of Healthes, to be Sinfull […] , London: Augustine Matthews, page 22:
      Who did begin their Feaſtes with Prayers; continue them with Temperance, and Sobrietie; eating no more then would ſuffice their hunger; drinking no more then would quench and ſatisfie their thirſt […]
    • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet. A Detective Story, 3rd edition, London, New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock, Bowden, and Co., […], published 1892, →OCLC:
      On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion.
    • 2007, Susan Wise Bauer, “The Problem of Succession”, in The History of the Ancient World, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, page 729:
      But there was no one to shake Nero into temperance. He had affairs, drank tremendously, raised taxes in the provinces to pay for his indulgences, and started once again to hold the infamous treason trials as Caligula had done.
  2. Moderation, and sometimes abstinence, in respect to using intoxicating liquors.
    • 1842 February 22, Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society”, in Arthur Brooks Lapsley, editor, The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln‎[1]:
      Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all mankind some hundreds of years thereafter.
    • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXI, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 314:
      So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger, and they begun to work the villages again. ¶ First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough for them both to get drunk on.
    • 1908–1910, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, “Christmas Shopping”, in Howards End, New York, N.Y., London: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], published 1910, →OCLC, page 97:
      Public-houses, besides their usual exhortation against temperance reform, invited men to “Join our Christmas goose club”—one bottle of gin, etc., or two, according to subscription.
    • 1986, Mary Beth Norton, David M. Katzman, Paul D. Escott, Howard P. Chudacoff, Thomas G. Paterson, William M. Tuttle, Jr., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, page 326:
      Evangelists organized an association for each issue—temperance, education, Sabbath observance, antidueling, and later antislavery; collectively these groups formed a national web of benevolent and moral reform societies.
  3. Moderation of passion; calmness.
    Synonyms: patience, calmness, sedateness
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 266, column 2:
      […] in the verie Torrent, Tempeſt, and (as I may ſay) the Whirle-winde of Paſſion, you muſt acquire and beget a Temperance that may giue it Smoothneſſe.
    • 1849, [John] Westland Marston, “Strathmore”, in The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Westland Marston, volume I, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1876, act I, scene ii, page 10:
      Enough, you stand a traitor by my hearth, / And yet I draw not! Sir, I cannot pledge / This temperance long; the path of safety’s there.
    • 2020 June 11, Lola Okolosie, “This bungled schools coronavirus policy hurts children, parents and teachers”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-12:
      What was the government doing keeping schools open when our closest neighbours – Ireland, France, Germany, Spain and Italy – had already closed theirs? […] Those who were being charitable asked for temperance. Our government surely had a credible plan? Somewhere. Right?
  4. (obsolete) State with regard to heat or cold; temperature.

Antonyms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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terms derived from the noun temperance
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Translations

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Translations to be checked

See also

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associated terms
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