1. Unpremeditated; esp. of prayer, discourse, composition, etc.; EXTEMPORE a. 2. Occas. of a speaker; † formerly also of the ability to speak.
1610. Bp. Hall, Apol. Brownists, § 42. 103. The seruice said in our Parish-Churches, is as good a seruice to God, as the extemporarie deuotions in your Parlors.
1648–9. Eikon. Bas., 78. Those men who gloried in their extemporary vein and fluency.
1684. Winstanley, in Shaks. C. Praise, 400. Queen Elizabeth coming into a Grammar-School made this extemporary Verse.
1849. Ld. Cockburn, Jrnl., II. 244. I have never known a truly extemporary preacher.
1875. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, vi. 157. Cardinal de Retz … described himself in an extemporary Latin sentence.
1880. ‘Vernon Lee,’ Stud. Italy, II. ii. 27. Italy appears at all times to have produced extemporary poets.
quasi-adv. 1629. N. C[arpenter], Achitophel, 38. David’s prayer … proceeded from him extemporary.
† b. nonce-use.
1642. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 33. 62. I beleeve they [the Angels] have an extemporary knowledge.
† 2. Arising at the moment, occasional, casual; sudden, unexpected. Obs.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, I. xxiv. (1840), 46. Being no slip of an extemporary passion, but a studied and premeditated act.
a. 1660. Hammond, Serm. on Matt. xi. 30, Wks. IV. 480. The most extemporary view of the commands of the decalogue.
1672. Shadwell, Miser, IV. Extemporary love is most commonly as hypocritical as extemporary prayer.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 94, ¶ 4. A calm delight, such as … is yet easily quitted for some extemporary joy.
3. Made for, or suggested by the occasion; hastily built, framed, prepared or provided; makeshift; = EXTEMPORE a. 3.
1631. T. May, trans. Barclay’s Mirr. of Mindes, I. 199. They … constitute one common and extemporary home.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 349/2. As soon as he landed, they … rear’d an extemporary Altar before him.
1699. Evelyn, Acetaria (1729), 153. Such Plants … are easily prepar’d for an Extemporary Collation.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Milton, Wks. II. 117. The system of extemporary government … fell into fragments.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1867), 581. Such elaborate dramatic personages were not extemporary creations thrown off in the heat of the pen.
a. 1864. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-Bks. (1879), II. 146. A sty even more extemporary than the shanties.
† B. sb. An extemporary speech or action; an impromptu. Obs.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, III. 9. His extemporaries were often better than his præmeditations.
1685. Gracian’s Courtiers Orac., 52–3. Extemporaries are the gentile feats of a good discerning, and the loadstone of admiration.
Hence † Extemporarian, one who speaks extempore; one who maintains the propriety of speaking extempore. Extemporarily adv., in an extemporary manner; without premeditation. Extemporariness, extemporary quality.
1680. G. Hickes, Spirit Popery, 45. Either the Church of England, or the People called Quakers are in the right, and Extemporarians, not Inspired, certainly in the Wrong.
1667. H. More, Div. Dial., II. vi. (1713), 108. I have answered as well as I could thus extemporarily.
a. 1754. Fielding, Demosth. 1st Olynthiac, Wks. 1775, IX. 238. Extemporarily, and without premeditation.
1840. Mill, Diss. & Disc. (1875), I. 400. Extemporarily adapting means to ends.
1671. [R. MacWard], True Non-conf., 245. You endeavour thereby, to impugne extemporariness, multiplicity, and variety of words, in Prayer.
