temerity
pronunciation
How to pronounce temerity in British English:
UK [təˈmerəti]
How to pronounce temerity in American English:
US [təˈmɛrɪti]
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- Noun:
- fearless daring
Word Origin
- temerity
- temerity: [15] Someone who behaves with temerity is etymologically acting in the ‘dark’. The word was adapted from Latin temeritās ‘rashness’, a derivative of temere ‘blindly’, hence ‘rashly’. This in turn was formed from an unrecorded *temus ‘darkness’, a relative of tenebrae ‘darkness’, and hence originally denoted ‘acting in the dark, so that one cannot see’.
- temerity (n.)
- late 14c., from Latin temeritatem (nominative temeritas) "blind chance, accident; rashness, indiscretion, foolhardiness," from temere "by chance, at random; indiscreetly, rashly," related to tenebrae "darkness," from PIE root *teme- "dark" (cognates: Sanskrit tamas- "darkness," tamsrah "dark;" Avestan temah "darkness;" Lithuanian tamsa "darkness," tamsus "dark;" Old Church Slavonic tima "darkness;" Old High German dinstar "dark;" Old Irish temel "darkness"). The connecting notion is "blindly, without foreseeing."
Synonym
Antonym
Example
- 1. Instead the french president 's language betrays temerity .
- 2. Given these statistical shortcomings , it takes a little temerity to suggest we can identify the precise year when services will overtake industry .
- 3. Some congressmen are now preparing bills that would punish the palestinians for their temerity .
- 4. For many years , senator helms 's adamant opposition to it made support an easy gesture for many senators who may have shared his qualms but not his temerity .
- 5. Then , after brutally suppressing his own country 's pro-democracy activists , ahmadinejad had the temerity to condemn qaddafi 's use of force against demonstrators , calling it " grotesque . "