different between temper vs still

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English stille (“motionless, stationary”), from Old English stille (“still, quiet, calm; without motion, at rest, not moving from a place, not disturbed; moving little or gently; silent; not loud; secret; unchanging, undisturbed, stable, fixed; not vehement, gentle”), from Proto-West Germanic *still? (“quiet, still”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)telH- (“to be silent; to be still”). Cognate with Scots stil (“still”), Saterland Frisian stil (“motionless, calm, quiet”), West Frisian stil (“quiet, still”), Dutch stil (“quiet, silent, still”), Low German still (“quiet, still”), German still (“still, quiet, tranquil, silent”), Swedish stilla (“quiet, silent, peaceful”), Icelandic stilltur (“set, quiet, calm, still”). Related to stall.

(noun: Falkland Islander): Military slang, short for still a Benny, since the military had been instructed not to refer to the islanders by the derogatory term Benny (which see).

Alternative forms

• stil
• stille, styll, stylle (obsolete)

Adjective

still (comparative stiller or more still, superlative stillest or most still)

1. Not moving; calm.

2. Not effervescing; not sparkling.

3. Uttering no sound; silent.
   • c. 1711, Joseph Addison, How are thy Servants blest, O Lord!

     The sea that roared at thy command, / At thy command was still.

4. (not comparable) Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
5. Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low.
6. (obsolete) Constant; continual.

Synonyms

• (not moving): fixed, stationary, unmoving, static, inert, stagnant; see also Thesaurus:stationary or Thesaurus:immobile
• (not effervescing): flat, uneffervescent; see also Thesaurus:noneffervescent
• (uttering no sound): noiseless, soundless; see also Thesaurus:silent
• (having the same stated quality):
• (comparatively quiet): hushed, tranquil; see also Thesaurus:quiet
• (constant, continual): incessant, ongoing, unremitting; see also Thesaurus:continuous

Derived terms

• still life
• stillness
• unstill

Related terms

• be still my heart
• be still my beating heart
• still waters run deep

Translations

Adverb

still (not comparable)

1. Without motion.

2. (aspect) Up to a time, as in the preceding time.

3. (degree) To an even greater degree. Used to modify comparative adjectives or adverbs.

   ("still" and "taller" can easily swap places here)
4. (conjunctive) Nevertheless.
   • 1817, Thomas Moore, Lalla-Rookh

     As sunshine, broken in the rill, / Though turned astray, is sunshine still.
5. (archaic, poetic) Always; invariably; constantly; continuously.
   • The desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private.

   • 1661, Robert Boyle, Unsucceeding Experiments

     Chemists would be rich if they could still do in great quantities what they have sometimes done in little.

6. (extensive) Even, yet.

Synonyms

• (without motion): akinetically, motionlessly, stock still, stockishly
• (up to a time): yet
• (to an even greater degree): yet, even
• (nevertheless): nonetheless, though, yet; see also Thesaurus:nevertheless
• (always): consistently, invariably, uniformly; See also Thesaurus:uniformly
• (even, yet):

Translations

Noun

still (plural stills)

1. A period of calm or silence.

2. (photography) A photograph, as opposed to movie footage.
3. (slang) A resident of the Falkland Islands.
4. A steep hill or ascent.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Browne to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (period of calm): lull, rest, respite; quiet, tranquility
• (resident of the Falkland Islands): Benny, Falklander, Kelper

Translations

Etymology 2

Via Middle English [Term?], ultimately from Latin stilla.

Noun

still (plural stills)

1. A device for distilling liquids.
2. (catering) A large water boiler used to make tea and coffee.
3. (catering) The area in a restaurant used to make tea and coffee, separate from the main kitchen.
4. A building where liquors are distilled; a distillery.

Translations

See also

• pot still

Etymology 3

From Old English stillan.

Verb

still (third-person singular simple present stills, present participle stilling, simple past and past participle stilled)

1. To calm down, to quiet.

Synonyms

• becalm, lull, quell; see also Thesaurus:pacify

Translations

Etymology 4

Aphetic form of distil, or from Latin stillare.

Verb

still (third-person singular simple present stills, present participle stilling, simple past and past participle stilled)

1. (obsolete) To trickle, drip.
2. To cause to fall by drops.
3. To expel spirit from by heat, or to evaporate and condense in a refrigeratory; to distill.

Translations

Anagrams

• Tills, lilts, tills

German

Etymology

From Middle High German [Term?], from Old High German stilli.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?l/

Adjective

still (comparative stiller, superlative am stillsten)

1. quiet, silent

Declension

Adverb

still

1. quietly, silently

Further reading

• “still” in Duden online

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?til/

Adjective

still

1. quiet, silent

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Verb

still

1. imperative of stille

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Verb

still

1. imperative of stilla

Etymology 2

Adjective

still (masculine and feminine still, neuter stilt, definite singular and plural stille, comparative stillare, indefinite superlative stillast, definite superlative stillaste)

1. Alternative form of stille

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /es?til/, [es?t?il]

Noun

still m (plural stills)

1. (photography) still