distemper
pronunciation
How to pronounce distemper in British English:
UK [dɪˈstempə(r)]
How to pronounce distemper in American English:
US [dɪsˈtɛmpɚ]
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- Noun:
- any of various infectious viral diseases of animals
- an angry and disagreeable mood
- paint made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder
- a painting created by distemper
- a method of painting in which the pigments are mixed with water and a binder; used for painting posters or murals or stage scenery
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- Verb:
- paint with distemper
Word Origin
- distemper
- distemper: English has two distinct words distemper, although ultimately they come from the same source, Latin temperāre ‘mingle’ (source of English temper, 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 temperāre in the specialized meaning ‘mingle in proper proportion’ to produce distemperāre ‘upset the proper balance of bodily humours’, hence ‘vex, make ill’.This passed directly into English as distemper [14], and survives today mainly as the term for an infectious disease of dogs. Disjoined with temperāre in its intensive function produced medieval Latin distemperāre ‘mix thoroughly, soak’, which entered English via Old French destemprer in the 14th century. The meaning ‘soak, steep, infuse’ survived until the 17th century: ‘Give the Horse thereof every morning … the quantity of a Hasel-nut distempered in a quart of Wine’, Edward Topsell, History of Four-footed Beasts 1607.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 [19], borrowed from Italian).=> temper, temperate, temperature
- distemper (v.)
- mid-14c., "to disturb," from Old French destemprer, from Medieval Latin distemperare "vex, make ill," literally "upset the proper balance (of bodily humors)," from dis- "un-, not" (see dis-) + Latin temperare "mingle in the proper proportion" (see temper (v.)). Related: Distempered.
- distemper (n.)
- 1550s, from distemper (v.); in reference to a disease of dogs, from 1747.
Example
- 1. Both canine distemper and rabies are fatal if contracted .
- 2. The distemper held him a long time , and at length carried him off .
- 3. Canine distemper virus from domesticated dogs apparently killed a significant fraction of seal populations in antarctica and siberia .
- 4. Canine distemper , infectious canine hepatitis and canine parvovirus .
- 5. Studies on detection of canine distemper virus by semi-nested pcr .