temper [OE] The first sense of the verb was to bring a mixture to a suitable condition. The word goes back ultimately to Latin temperare ‘to mingle’, and in medieval times the noun referred to the right balance in a mixture of elements or qualities, still used of metals. It was particularly associated with the thought of the combination of the four bodily *humours believed to control whether you were naturally calm, optimistic, melancholy, or irritable. This dictated what kind of temperament you had, a Late Middle English term from the Latin for ‘correct mixture’.