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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
temperament
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
artistic
▪ Gould's time was too precious and his ambition too overriding to allow him a thought for artistic temperament.
▪ Movie films always run over budget because the artistic temperament is impatient with detail.
▪ An alert artistic temperament is the first requirement for the creation of these so impressive two dimensional figures.
▪ People with artistic temperaments are rarely practical with money and are easy to rip-off.
▪ I can't abide people with artistic temperaments: always blame some one else, never themselves.
▪ She is just the sort of girl to stimulate the artistic temperament.
▪ Perhaps it was her artistic temperament - it was impossible to know for certain.
▪ He made no bones about displaying his artistic temperament.
different
▪ Doris and I have very different temperaments, if you know what I mean, but we complement each other.
▪ Anyone who has had two or more children knows how different babies' temperaments can be from the day they are born.
▪ Young children have very different temperaments and so the style of management of one child may not suit another.
▪ Though far different in temperament and background, the two proved a successful team.
▪ But they are very different in temperament.
▪ Although the brothers are identical twins, they have quite different temperaments.
▪ Like Ballantyne, Kingston used the different temperaments of his youthful trio to keep their exploits within reasonable bounds.
▪ So different temperaments have their place within any particular field.
good
▪ The young Yorkshireman apparently has a good temperament and a complete all-round game.
▪ He had such a good temperament.
▪ Sound, healthy mares tend to have sound, healthy foals. Good temperament is vital.
▪ He hasn't got the best temperament for it.
▪ We are used to everyone saying that their horse has a good temperament, but what is the temperament of a horse?
■ VERB
suit
▪ A personalised healing programme will be devised to suit your temperament and specific needs.
▪ McGregor thought Amelia was particularly suited by temperament for scientific work because she had such a lively interest.
▪ Barnett House's union of social thought and social action admirably suited her temperament.
▪ I discover the optimism of scientists, which suits my temperament.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ His calm, quiet temperament made him popular with his colleagues.
▪ I'm not sure if she has the right temperament for the job.
▪ My father and I got along very well, having very similar temperaments.
▪ Pete has a calm, quiet temperament.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ His looks, his temperament, his background - even his name marked him off for ridicule.
▪ If temperament had not existed, all paintings would have of necessity to be simple photographs.
▪ She knew they were a light-saddle horse with a good disposition in spite of the spirited, fiery temperament.
▪ That is not to say there were no clashes of temperament or differences of opinion about the way things should be done.
▪ Those who survive best emotionally do so partly by the gift of their inborn temperament.
▪ Young children have very different temperaments and so the style of management of one child may not suit another.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Temperament

Temperament \Tem"per*a*ment\, n. [L. temperamentum a mixing in due proportion, proper measure, temperament: cf. F. temp['e]rament. See Temper, v. t.]

  1. Internal constitution; state with respect to the relative proportion of different qualities, or constituent parts.

    The common law . . . has reduced the kingdom to its just state and temperament.
    --Sir M. Hale.

  2. Due mixture of qualities; a condition brought about by mutual compromises or concessions. [Obs.]

    However, I forejudge not any probable expedient, any temperament that can be found in things of this nature, so disputable on their side.
    --Milton.

  3. The act of tempering or modifying; adjustment, as of clashing rules, interests, passions, or the like; also, the means by which such adjustment is effected.

    Wholesome temperaments of the rashness of popular assemblies.
    --Sir J. Mackintosh.

  4. Condition with regard to heat or cold; temperature. [Obs.]

    Bodies are denominated ``hot'' and ``cold'' in proportion to the present temperament of that part of our body to which they are applied.
    --Locke.

  5. (Mus.) A system of compromises in the tuning of organs, pianofortes, and the like, whereby the tones generated with the vibrations of a ground tone are mutually modified and in part canceled, until their number reduced to the actual practicable scale of twelve tones to the octave. This scale, although in so far artificial, is yet closely suggestive of its origin in nature, and this system of tuning, although not mathematically true, yet satisfies the ear, while it has the convenience that the same twelve fixed tones answer for every key or scale, C[sharp] becoming identical with D[flat], and so on.

  6. (Physiol.) The peculiar physical and mental character of an individual, in olden times erroneously supposed to be due to individual variation in the relations and proportions of the constituent parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc. Hence the phrases, bilious or choleric temperament, sanguine temperament, etc., implying a predominance of one of these fluids and a corresponding influence on the temperament.

    Equal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations from mathematically true pitch are distributed among all the keys alike.

    Unequal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations are thrown into the keys least used.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
temperament

late 14c., "proportioned mixture of elements," from Latin temperamentum "proper mixture, a mixing in due proportion," from temperare "to mix" (see temper (v.)). In medieval theory, it meant a combination of qualities (hot, cold, moist, dry) that determined the nature of an organism; thus also "a combination of the four humors (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic) that made up a person's characteristic disposition." General sense of "habit of mind, natural disposition" is from 1821.

Wiktionary
temperament

n. 1 (context obsolete English) A moderate and proportionable mixture of elements or ingredients in a compound; the condition in which elements are mixed in their proper proportions. 2 (context obsolete English) Any state or condition as determined by the proportion of its ingredients or the manner in which they are mixed; consistence, composition; mixture. 3 a person's normal manner of thinking, behaving or reacting 4 a tendency to become irritable or angry 5 (context music English) the altering of certain intervals from their correct values in order to improve the moving from key to key

WordNet
temperament
  1. n. your usual mood; "he has a happy disposition" [syn: disposition]

  2. excessive emotionalism or irritability and excitability (especially when displayed openly)

  3. an adjustment of the intervals (as in tuning a keyboard instrument) so that the scale can be used to play in different keys

Wikipedia
Temperament

In psychology, temperament refers to those aspects of an individual's personality, such as introversion or extroversion, that are often regarded as innate rather than learned. A great many classificatory schemes for temperament have been developed; none, though, has achieved general consensus in academia.

Historically, the concept of temperament was part of the theory of the four humors, with their corresponding four temperaments. The historical concept played an identifiable part in pre-modern psychology, and was explored by philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Hermann Lotze. David W. Keirsey also drew upon the early models of temperament when developing the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. More recently, scientists seeking evidence of a biological basis of personality have further examined the relationship between temperament and character (defined in this context as developmental aspects of personality). However, biological correlations have proven hard to confirm.

Usage examples of "temperament".

Persons of a lymphatic or bilious temperament often find that coffee disagrees with them, aggravating their troubles and causing biliousness, constipation, and headache, while tea proves agreeable and beneficial.

Is it really my apolitical temperament that makes me keep my distance from the intersexual rights movement?

Compared to the stormy Baptist, he had seemed the gentle Rabbi, the soft-spoken Teacher, generally meek in temperament, and not given to such violent emotion as now apparently raged within.

In Apaecides the whole aspect betokened the fervor and passion of his temperament, and the intellectual portion of his nature seemed, by the wild fire of the eyes, the great breadth of the temples when compared with the height of the brow, the trembling restlessness of the lips, to be swayed and tyrannized over by the imaginative and ideal.

But their opiates affect a race addicted to physical repose, to sensuous enjoyment rather than to sensual excitement, and to lucid intellectual contemplation, with a sense of serene delight as supremely delicious to their temperament as the dreamy illusions of haschisch to the Turk, the fierce frenzy of bhang to the Malay, or the wild excitement of brandy or Geneva to the races of Northern Europe.

But the most irritating of girl--men is assuredly the Parisian and the boulevardier, in whom the appearance of intelligence is more marked and who combines in himself all the attractions and all the faults of those charming creatures in an exaggerated degree in virtue of his masculine temperament.

I was perfectly idle, and with the temperament which nature and habit had given me, was it likely that I could feast my eyes constantly upon such a charming object without falling desperately in love?

Her logic was better than that of Cicero in his Tusculan Disputations, but she admitted that such lasting felicity could exist only between two beings who lived together, and loved each other with constant affection, healthy in mind and in body, enlightened, sufficiently rich, similar in tastes, in disposition, and in temperament.

The two men were primarily of so different a temperament, that they apparently could not long agree even on subjects on which they were most in accord.

The thought that our embraces would have no dangerous result had put Pauline at her ease, and she have reins to her ardent temperament, while I did valiant service, till at last we were exhausted and the last sacrifice was not entirely consummated.

It fitted his moods and temperaments like an old leather glove, calming him during troubled times, energizing him when weariness threatened to clog his brain, and gently stroking him when the depressions struck.

It is an artistic, creative, and aesthetic temperament, beautiful in conception and grand in expression, yet its sensitiveness is enfeebling, and its crowning excellence, when betrayed by the propensities, trails in defilement.

Matching wits with a fatuous fribble of uncertain temperament could only hurt Harriet.

The volatile temperament of the French frontiersmen bubbled over with enthusiasm at the first hint of something new, and revolutionary in which they might be expected to take part.

Gereth had long ago generalized the truth that the temperament of the frump is amply consistent with a certain usual prettiness.