attemper

English

Alternative forms

• attempre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English attempren, from Old French atemprer (French attremper), from Latin attemperare. Doublet of attemperate.

Verb

attemper (third-person singular simple present attempers, present participle attempering, simple past and past participle attempered)

1. To temper by adjusting relative quantities, or blending qualities.
2. To mitigate, assuage.
   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 86:

     But we must add, that she did say, by way of attempering her pleasure: "Well! I must say I never saw a finer young man in my life—indeed I don’t know that the court of Great Britain quite boasts his equal...

3. (archaic) To regulate, arrange, organise.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Thus fairely she attempered her feast, / And pleasd them all with meete satietie [...].

   • 1815, Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, On the Convention at Hartford, page 246:

     They tempt no conflict, no revenge provoke,
     But meet oppression in its daring course,
     With wisdom's ample shield, of Heaven attemper'd force.

Derived terms

• attemperation
• attemperly
• attemperment

 

Anagrams

• attempre