temperament (temperament)

[F. tem pérament = Sp. Pg. It. tempera men to, The common law has wasted and wrought out those distempers, and reduced the kingdom to its just state and temperament . Sir M. Hale . 2. That individual peculiarity of physical organization by which the manner of acting, feeling, and thinking of every person is permanently affected: as, a phlegmatic tempera ment; a sanguine temperament; the artistic tem per ament. Certain temperamental types have long been recognized (see the phrases below); they may serve the purposes of description, but do not represent any very well marked natural groups. 3. A middle course or an arrangement reached by mutual conce ion, as by a tempering of extreme claims on either side; adjustment of conflicting influences, as pa ions, interests, or doctrines, or the means by which such adjustment is effected; compromise. I forejudge not any probable expedient, any tempera ment that can be found in things of this nature, so disputable on either side. Milton , Free Commonwealth. Auricular confe ion was left to each man's discre tion in the new order: a judicious temperament, which the reformers would have done well to adopt in some other points. Hallam, Const. Hist., I. 88. 41. Condition as 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, Elem. of Nat. Phil., xi. Madeira is a fertile island, and the different heights and situations among its mountains afford such temperaments of air that all the fruits of northern and southern countries are produced there. B. Franklin , Autobiography, p. 313. 5. In music, the principle or system of tuning in accordance with which the tones of an instrument of fixed intonation are tuned, or those 6222 the "wolf" among all the tones of the instrument, so that the only intervals exactly true are octaves. Modulation, therefore, is made equally free in all directions; but, on the other hand, all chords are more or le out of tune. The benefits of the system in the way of providing a simple keyboard for music in many tonalities are largely counterbalanced by the constant deterioration of the sense of pure intonation on the part of those who use instruments tuned in this compromise temperament. This unmistakable disadvantage, reinforced by the fact that keyboard-instruments are much used in conjunction with the voice and with instruments of free intonation, like the violin, in which a just temperament is to be expected, has led to many new experiments with keyboards of more than twelve s to the octave, but without any result suitable for general adoption. Temperaments are some times known by various technical names, usually designating the interval chosen as a unit of measurement, such as commatic, schistic, etc. - Choleric or bilious temperament, a temperament which in its typical forms presents a swarthy complexion, dark hair and eyes, well developed temperately It [the island) must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance . Shak., Tempest, ii. 1. 42. Temperance hotel, a hotel in which no intoxicating liquors are supplied to the guests or kept for sale. - Temperance movement, a social or political movement hav ing for its object the restriction or abolition of the use of alcoholic liquors as beverages. - Temperance society, an a ociation formed for the purpose of suppre ing drunkenne . The basis on which these a ociations have been formed has been that of an engagement on the part of each member to abstain from the exce ive or habitual use of intoxicating liquors. But, since the most strictly limited use of intoxicants as beverages is condemned by many social reformers, this name has been very generally applied to, or a umed by, a ociations which are more correctly designated total -abstinence societies. =Syn. 1. (a) Abstinence, Sobriety, etc. See abstemiousne .