temperment

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English

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Etymology

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Perhaps influenced by analysis as temper +‎ -ment. (Attested since the 1470s.)

Pronunciation

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Noun

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temperment (plural temperments)

  1. Misconstruction of temperament
    • 1873, The Mystic Star, volume 18, page 41:
      […] it is possible, and probable, that the nervous temperment (as it is called) is inherited […] . Are men of nervous temperment found to be unfit […] ? If not, why should women of the same temperment be unfit for them? The peculiarities of the temperment are, no doubt, within certain limits, an obstacle to success in some employments, though an aid to it in others. But when the occupation is suitable to the temperment, […] It is evident that people of this temperment are particularly apt for [leadership].
    • 1975-1976, Brian Lederer, in a letter printed in Nomination of an Associate Judge: Hearing Before the Committee on the District of Columbia, United States Senate, Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session, on Nomination of Charles W. Halleck to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (reappointment), December 3, 1975, page 166:
      What is disturbing to me is not the appearance per se but the attempt to cloak it as a non-political statement on judicial temperment. If judicial temperment were really the concern of the U.S. Attorney's office, they would provide the Committee with a full picture. Every lawyer who practices in D.C. Superior Court knows there are judges whose judicial temperment cries out for investigation […] The nub of the matter is not Judge Halleck's judicial temperment but the United States Attorney's dislike of the legal rulings of the judge.

Further reading

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