temporary [M16th] Temporary is one of a number of words that go back to Latin termpus, tempor- such as contemporary [M17th] ‘of a time with’, grammatical tense [ME], and tempo [E18th], which came to English via Italian, and is now a musical term, but in the 17th century was used in fencing for the timing of an attack. Tempest [ME] also goes back to tempus, via Latin tempestas ‘season, weather, storm’.