temperance
pronunciation
How to pronounce temperance in British English:
UK [ˈtempərəns]
How to pronounce temperance in American English:
US [ˈtempərəns]
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- Noun:
- the trait of avoiding excesses
- abstaining from excess
- the act of tempering
Word Origin
- temperance (n.)
- mid-14c., "self-restraint, moderation," from Anglo-French temperaunce (mid-13c.), from Latin temperantia "moderation, sobriety, discretion, self-control," from temperans, present participle of temperare "to moderate" (see temper (v.)). Latin temperantia was used by Cicero to translate Greek sophrosyne "moderation." In English, temperance was used to render Latin continentia or abstinentia, specifically in reference to drinking alcohol and eating; hence by early 1800s it had come to mean "abstinence from alcoholic drink."
Example
- 1. America also has a long tradition of temperance .
- 2. During prohibition teetotaling temperance activists asserted this belief citing it among the dangers of drink .
- 3. In the 1924 ontario prohibition plebiscite ontarians voted narrowly , by a margin of 51.5 % to 48.5 % , to retain the ontario temperance act .
- 4. Temperance eat not to dullness ; drink not to elevation .
- 5. Mr norquist is the pugnacious founder of americans for tax reform ( atr ) , a mighty pressure group that deems taxes no less of an evil than alcohol was in the eyes of the 19th-century temperance movements .