tempo-, tempor-, temp-
(Latin: time, occasion)
Don't confuse this tempo- element with other words that refer to the temples; such as, the flattened sides of the forehead or the buildings used for religious worship or services. They simply have no connection with this element.
We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.
2. The characteristic of being current or up-to-date: The shopping mall in the city had the latest contemporaneities of dresses and shoes, all very stylish and chic!
2. Etymology: from Latin, con-, "together with" + temporaneus; from tempus, tempor-, "time" + -ous .
2. Concerning something that is in existence now: The art class at school went to the museum to see contemporary paintings of present-day artists.
3. Descriptive of something distinctively modern in style: The architects were busy designing a contemporary concert hall with all the newest inventions for acoustics.
4. Referring to a person of the same, or approximately the same, age as someone else: Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, and Frédéric Chopin were all contemporary composers, all born between 1810 and 1813.
5. Etymology: from Medieval Latin (Latin as written and spoken about 700 to about 1500) contemporarius which came from Latin con-, "with" + temporarius, "of time" from tempus, "time".
2. To place someone or something in the same time period as others: The memories Joanna had were contemporized with old or previous times she had as a child in the country.
3. To come about or to occur at the same time; to synchronize: Rain didn’t contemporize with Janet's outdoor birthday party and everyone had a wonderful time enjoying the good food and the great weather.
2. A mishap or embarrassing occurrence: Contretemps can take place during a ballet when a dancer stumbles or slips by mistake.
3. Etymology: from French : contre-, against which came from Latin contr-, "against" + tempus, "time"; literally, "against the time".
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2. A potentially fatal viral disease of animals. especially dogs and cats, characterized by rhinitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the nose ), fever, and a loss of appetite: Distemper is a virus which can be extremely contagious among the canine animals and causes coughing and fever.
3. Etymology: from Old French destemprer,"to put out of order"; from Middle Latin distemperare from dis-, "undoing, reversal" + Latin temperare, "to mingle in due proportion, to combine properly, to moderate, to regulate"; from tempus, temporis, "time".
English has two distinct words for distemper although ultimately they come from the same source.
Latin temperare, "mingle" (source of English temper; derived from Latin tempus, "time, due time"; from temperate, and temperature. This formed the basis of two separate medieval Latin verbs, both compounded from the prefix dis- but using it in quite different ways.
- Dis- in the sense "reversal of a current state" joined with temperare in the specialized meaning, "mingle in proper proportion" to produce distemperare, "to upset the proper balance of bodily humours"; hence, "to vex, to make ill".
This passed directly into English as distemper, and survives today mainly as the term for an infectious disease of dogs and cats.
- Dis- joined with temperare in its intensive function produced medieval Latin distemperare, "to mix thoroughly, to soak", which entered English via Old French destemprer in the 14th century.
The meaning "to soak, to steep, to infuse" survived until the 17th century. The word's modern application, to a water-based decorator's paint, comes from the fact that the pigment is mixed with or infused in water (the same notion lies behind tempera, borrowed from Italian).
2. Etymology: from Late Latin distemperare, literally, "to mix thoroughly"; from Latin dis, in the sense "completely" + tempare, "to mix, to mingle in due proportion, to combine properly"; from temps, genitive of temporis, "time".
Related "time" units: aevum, evum; archaeo-, archeo-; Calendars; chrono-; horo-; pre-; Quotes: Time.