a. [f. late L. extemporāne-us (in some texts of Quintilian for extemporālis; f. ex tempore: see EXTEMPORE) + -OUS, Cf. F. extemporané.]
1. Not premeditated or studied, off-hand, extempore; esp. of discourse, prayer, etc. Rarely of a person: Speaking extempore; also, inclined to promptness of action.
1656–81. in Blount, Glossogr.
1673. Boyle, Excell. Theol., Wks. IV. 54. If it happen (as it often will in extemporaneous discourse) that a philosopher be not rightly understood.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., v. (1738), 124. This cannot be done in extemporaneous effusions: and therefore there must be forms premeditated.
1812. Religionism, 60. Extemporaneous pulpiteers, your text Prepare, and face of brass.
1825. Ld. Cockburn, Mem., 418. He seldom utters an extemporaneous word. His habit is to have every thing written, to the very letter.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., II. x. 230. Ladies of an extemporaneous turn of mind.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 159. There might be a revised liturgy which should not exclude extemporaneous prayer.
1863. Robinson, in Macm. Mag., March, 416. Extemporaneous preaching is … best adapted to interest and amuse the hearers.
2. Made for the occasion, hastily erected or prepared. Of a medicine: Needing to be prepared at the time of prescription; opposed to officinal. So extemporaneous practice.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Water Germander, [It is] somewhat strange, that it is not oftner met with in extemporaneous Practise. Ibid. (1727), s.v. Cup Moss, Mosses … have never obtain’d officinal or extemporaneous prescription.
1754. Warburton, Ld. Bolingbroke’s Philos., ii. (1756), 72. His famous book … taken as an extemporaneous cordial,… to support himself under his frequent paroxysms.
1830. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLII. 99. This extemporaneous architecture was soon completed.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 61. He directed his servants to furnish an extemporaneous supper.
Hence Extemporaneously adv., in an extemporaneous manner. Extemporaneousness, the quality of being extemporaneous.
1764. Harmer, Observ., IV. v. 212. The extemporaneousness of them [Eastern songs].
1791. Edin. New Disp., 525. Any proper tincture … may be extemporaneously joined.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., IV. li. 415. The barometer thus extemporaneously made, will be nearly as perfect … as before.
1836. H. Coleridge, North. Worthies (1852), I. 66. Theological questions which it were worse than folly to treat extemporaneously and incidentally.
1891. Spectator, 28 Feb., 308/1. Insufficient preparation, and all the other evils which are briefly comprehended in the description of ‘extemporaneousness.’
