different between temper vs character

English

Alternative forms

• tempre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ?etemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temper? (“I divide or proportion duly, I moderate, I regulate; intransitive senses I am moderate, I am temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?t?mp?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?t?mp?/
• Rhymes: -?mp?(?)

Noun

temper (countable and uncountable, plural tempers)

1. A tendency to be in a certain type of mood; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, Scene 2,^[1]

     A noble temper dost thou show in this;

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Book 4, Chapter 2, p. 141,^[2]

     […] when she smiled, the Sweetness of her Temper diffused that Glory over her Countenance, which no Regularity of Features can give.

   • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Chapter 4,^[3]

     I am of a cautious temper, and unwilling to risk my happiness in a hurry.

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Chapter 26,^[4]

     […] Amy smiled without bitterness, for she possessed a happy temper and hopeful spirit.

   • 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando, Penguin, 1942, Chapter 2, p. 48,^[5]

     […] it appeared as if to be alone in the great house of his fathers suited his temper.

2. State of mind; mood.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9, lines 1046-1048,^[6]

     Remember with what mild

     And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d

     Without wrauth or reviling;

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 193,^[7]

     […] I must testify from my Experience, that a Temper of Peace, Thankfulness, Love and Affection, is much more the proper Frame for Prayer than that of Terror and Discomposure;

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Volume 3, Chapter 5,^[8]

     […] her temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and reverie.

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 29,^[9]

     ‘You should be careful not to irritate her, James. Her temper has been soured, remember, and ought not to be tried.’

   • 1950, Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice, London: Heinemann, 1952, Chapter 3, p. 94,^[10]

     She bowed to him, to put him in a good temper.

3. A tendency to become angry.
   • 1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 3,^[11]

     “I guess you’ve got a spice of temper,” commented Mr. Harrison, surveying the flushed cheeks and indignant eyes opposite him.

   • 1958, Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana, Penguin, 1969, Chapter 5,^[12]

     ‘What a temper you’ve got, Wormold.’

     ‘I’m sorry. Drink takes me that way.’

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus, London: Harvill Secker, Chapter 28, p. 251,^[13]

     His criticism of Inés makes him bristle. Nonetheless, he holds his temper in check.

4. Anger; a fit of anger.
   • 1919, Henry Blake Fuller, Bertram Cope’s Year, Chapter 28,^[14]

     Hortense remained for several days in a condition of sullen anger—she was a cloud lit up by occasional unaccountable flashes of temper.

   • 1953, C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1965, Chapter 1,^[15]

     Jill suddenly flew into a temper (which is quite a likely thing to happen if you have been interrupted in a cry).

   • 1999, Colm Tóibín, The Blackwater Lightship, New York: Scribner, Chapter 4, p. 110,^[16]

     […] she banged the door as she left as though in temper and walked to her car.

5. Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure.

   to keep one's temper; to lose one's temper; to recover one's temper

   • 1611, Ben Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: Walter Burre, Act IV,^[17]

     Restore your selues, vnto your temper, Fathers;

     And, without perturbation, heare me speake:

   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, Chapter 22,^[18]

     “And I think, madam,” said the Lord Keeper, losing his accustomed temper and patience, “that if you had nothing better to tell us, you had better have kept this family secret to yourself also.”

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Chapter 19,^[19]

     […] her temper was rarely ruffled, and, if we might judge by her appearance, she was always happy.
6. (obsolete) Constitution of body; the mixture or relative proportion of the four humours: blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy.
   • 1650, Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof, London: John Williams, Book 3, Chapter 12, p. 345,^[20]

     […] it is hard to say, whether [Christ’s] pain was more shamefull, or his shame more painfull unto him: the exquisiteness of his bodily temper, increasing the exquisiteness of his torment, and the ingenuity of his Soul, adding to his sensibleness of the indignities and affronts offered until him.

7. Middle state or course; mean; medium.
   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1849, Volume 3, Chapter 11, p. 86,^[21]

     The perfect lawgiver is a just temper between the mere man of theory, who can see nothing but general principles, and the mere man of business, who can see nothing but particular circumstances.

8. The state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; due mixture of different qualities.

   the temper of mortar

9. The heat treatment to which a metal or other material has been subjected; a material that has undergone a particular heat treatment.
10. The state of a metal or other substance, especially as to its hardness, produced by some process of heating or cooling.

    the temper of iron or steel

    • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act II, Scene 4,^[22]

      Between two blades, which bears the better temper: […]

      I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;

      But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,

      Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

11. (sugar manufacture, historical) Milk of lime, or other substance, employed in the process formerly used to clarify sugar.
    • 1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica” in Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, pp. xciv-xcv,^[23]

      All cane juice is liable to rapid fermentation. As soon, therefore, as the clarifier is filled, the fire is lighted, and the temper (white lime of Bristol) is stirred into it. The alkali of the lime having neutralized its superabundant acid, a part of it becomes the basis of the sugar.

Synonyms

• (tendency of mood): disposition, temperament
• ((fit of) anger): rage

Coordinate terms

• (Heat treatment): quenching

Derived terms

Related terms

• contemper
• distemper
• temperament
• temperance
• temperate

Translations

Verb

temper (third-person singular simple present tempers, present participle tempering, simple past and past participle tempered)

1. To moderate or control.
2. To strengthen or toughen a material, especially metal, by heat treatment; anneal.

   • The temper'd metals clash, and yield a silver sound.

3. To sauté spices in ghee or oil to release essential oils for flavouring a dish in South Asian cuisine.
4. To mix clay, plaster or mortar with water to obtain the proper consistency.
5. (music) To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.
6. (obsolete, Latinism) To govern; to manage.
   • 1591, Edmund Spenser, Mother Hubberd's Tale

     With which the damned ghosts he governeth, / And furies rules, and Tartare tempereth.

7. (archaic) To combine in due proportions; to constitute; to compose.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 3

     You fools! I and my fellows

     Are ministers of fate: the elements

     Of whom your swords are temper'd may as well

     Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs

     Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish

     One dowle that's in my plume; […]

8. (archaic) To mingle in due proportion; to prepare by combining; to modify, as by adding some new element; to qualify, as by an ingredient; hence, to soften; to mollify; to assuage.
   • 1839, George Bancroft, History of the United States of America Volume 2

     Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system.

   • 1682 (first performance), Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv'd

     Woman! lovely woman! nature made thee / To temper man: we had been brutes without you.

   • 1812-1818, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

     But thy fire / Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher.

   • 1709, Joseph Addison, The Tatler No. 100

     She [the Goddess of Justice] threw darkness and clouds about her, that tempered the light into a thousand beautiful shades and colours.

9. (obsolete) To fit together; to adjust; to accommodate.

   • Thy sustenance […] serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking.

Derived terms

• mistemper
• nontempering
• retemper
• temperable
• temperedness
• temperer
• tempering
• untemper
• untempered
• well-tempered

Translations

Further reading

• temper in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• temper in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• tempre

English

Etymology

From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “type, nature, character”), from ??????? (kharáss?, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??(?)kt?/, /?kæ?(?)kt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt?/
• Hyphenation: char?ac?ter

Noun

character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)

1. (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
2. (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.

3. (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.

   • A man of […] thoroughly subservient character

4. (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.

5. (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.

6. (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech

     It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye.

7. (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
8. (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
9. (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
10. (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.

11. (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
12. (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.

13. (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.

    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.

14. (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
15. (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.

Usage notes

Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Pages starting with “character”.

Translations

Verb

character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)

1. (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.

See also

• codepoint
• font
• glyph
• letter
• symbol
• rune
• pictogram

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /k?a?rak.ter/, [k?ä??äkt??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ka?rak.ter/, [k????kt??r]

Noun

character m (genitive charact?ris); third declension

1. branding iron
2. brand (made by a branding iron)
3. characteristic, mark, character, style

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Hungarian: karakter
• Galician: caritel; ? carácter
• Irish: carachtar
• Italian: carattere
• Old French: caractere
  • ? English: character
  • French: caractère
• Polish: charakter
  • ? Russian: ????????? (xarákter)
• Portuguese: caractere, carácter
• Sicilian: caràttiri
• Spanish: carácter

References

• character in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Noun

character m (plural characteres)

1. Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).