Well-Tempered Vessels

 

🌸🤍🌸

         It was a mostly easy Sunday drive yesterday, but some drivers did some driving maneuvers which were annoying and rather dangerous, potentially.

          I was nudged to start thinking about the word temper. I realized suddenly that the way we use the word has flipped. I hadn’t really noticed the change until yesterday on the road.

          temper (v.)
"mix or work up into proper condition, adjust or restore to proper proportions;" Middle English temperen, from late Old English temprian "to moderate by mixture, bring to a proper or suitable state, modify (some excessive quality), restrain within due limits," from Latin temperare "observe proper measure, be moderate, restrain oneself," also transitive, "mix correctly, mix in due proportion; regulate, rule, govern, manage."
This often is described as from Latin tempus "time, season" (see temporal (adj.1)), with a notion of "proper time or season." But as the root sense of tempus seems to be "stretch," the words in the "restrain, modify" sense might be from a semantic shift from "stretching" to "measuring" (compare temple (n.1)).
The meaning "make (steel) hard and elastic" is from late 14c. The sense of "tune the pitch of a musical instrument" is recorded from c. 1300

          They used to say, “don’t lose your temper.” In this sense meaning to stay rational and not become angry. It meant to use restraint. Be reasonable. Think, not react. Don’t lose your essential character.
          These days people say that someone “has a bit of a temper.” They mean that a person, in fact, loses their temper, in the old sense, easily.  They are prone to anger.
          They also mention a “temper tantrum.”
         

tempered (adj.)
"brought to desired hardness" (of metals, especially steel), 1650s, past-participle adjective from temper (v.). The meaning "toned down by admixture" also is from 1650s. In modern use in reference to music or musical instruments, "tuned to a particular temper," from 1727.

          Proverbs 16:32 says,

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”

            In other words, he is "well-tempered." 

         Just some thoughts from the road, reconsidering some pepperiness of character on my own part.