Lexic.us

Definition of Temperament

1. Noun. Your usual mood. "He has a happy disposition"

2. Noun. Excessive emotionalism or irritability and excitability (especially when displayed openly).

3. Noun. An adjustment of the intervals (as in tuning a keyboard instrument) so that the scale can be used to play in different keys.

Definition of Temperament

1. n. Internal constitution; state with respect to the relative proportion of different qualities, or constituent parts.

Definition of Temperament

1. Noun. (obsolete) A moderate and proportionable mixture of elements or ingredients in a compound; the condition in which elements are mixed in their proper proportions. ¹

2. Noun. (obsolete) Any state or condition as determined by the proportion of its ingredients or the manner in which they are mixed; consistence, composition; mixture. ¹

3. Noun. a person's normal manner of thinking, behaving or reacting ¹

4. Noun. a tendency to become irritable or angry ¹

5. Noun. (music) the altering of certain intervals from their correct values in order to improve the moving from key to key ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Temperament

1. [n -S]

Medical Definition of Temperament

1. 1. Internal constitution; state with respect to the relative proportion of different qualities, or constituent parts. "The common law . . . Has reduced the kingdom to its just state and temperament." (Sir M. Hale) 2. Due mixture of qualities; a condition brought about by mutual compromises or concessions. "However, I forejudge not any probable expedient, any temperament that can be found in things of this nature, so disputable on their side." (Milton) 3. The act of tempering or modifying; adjustment, as of clashing rules, interests, passions, or the like; also, the means by which such adjustment is effected. "Wholesome temperaments of the rashness of popular assemblies." (Sir J. Mackintosh) 4. Condition with regard to heat or cold; temperature. "Bodies are denominated "hot" and "cold" in proportion to the present temperament of that part of our body to which they are applied." (Locke) 5. A system of compromises in the tuning of organs, pianofortes, and the like, whereby the tones generated with the vibrations of a ground tone are mutually modified and in part canceled, until their number reduced to the actual practicable scale of twelve tones to the octave. This scale, although in so far artificial, is yet closely suggestive of its origin in nature, and this system of tuning, although not mathematically true, yet satisfies the ear, while it has the convenience that the same twelve fixed tones answer for every key or scale, C# becoming identical with D The peculiar physical and mental character of an individual, in olden times erroneously supposed to be due to individual variation in the relations and proportions of the constituent parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc. Hence the phrases, bilious or choleric temperament, sanguine temperament, etc, implying a predominance of one of these fluids and a corresponding influence on the temperament. Equal temperament, that in which the variations are thrown into the keys least used. Origin: L. Temperamentum a mixing in due proportion, proper measure, temperament: cf. F. Temperament. See Temper. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Temperament

temes temnospondyl temnospondyls temoporfin temozolomide temp temped tempeh tempehs temper

temper'd temper tantrum temper tantrums tempera temperable temperament temperamental temperamentalities temperamentality temperamentally

temperaments temperance temperances temperancy temperas temperate temperate bacteriophage temperate phage temperate rain forest temperate rainforest

Literary usage of Temperament

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"All the 12 notes, from F below middle C to first E above, have now been tuned; the temperament has been confined to the smallest possible compass to lessen ..."

2. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James (1902)
"But the psychopathic temperament, whatever be the intellect with which it finds ... ^Thus, when a superior intellect and a psychopathic temperament coalesce ..."

3. Victorian Prose Masters: Thackeray--Carlyle--George Eliot--Matthew Arnold by William Crary Brownell (1901)
"He has, if one chooses, the temperament of the dilettante. But the characteristic of the dilettante really is absence of temperament. ..."

4. Victorian Prose Masters: Thackeray--Carlyle--George Eliot--Matthew Arnold by William Crary Brownell (1901)
"II THE defect one feels most sensibly in Mr. Meredith's organization is his lack of temperament. It is this that extracts the savor from his originality. ..."

5. Victorian Prose Masters: Thackeray--Carlyle--George Eliot--Matthew Arnold by William Crary Brownell (1901)
"THE defect one feels most sensibly in Mr. Meredith's organization is his lack of temperament. It is this that extracts the savor from his ..."

6. Victorian Prose Masters: Thackeray--Carlyle--George Eliot--Matthew Arnold by William Crary Brownell (1901)
"n THE defect one feels most sensibly in Mr. Meredith's organization is his lack of temperament. It is this that extracts the savor from his originality. ..."

7. The Institutes of Medicine by Martyn Paine (1862)
"Different epochs of life appear often to partake of a particular temperament ; one subsiding into another. The sanguine is most characteristic of infancy ..."

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