[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being temperate.
1. Moderateness, moderation; freedom from excess; temperance.
1398. Trevisa, Earth. De P. R., V. xxvii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe spirites þat comeþ fro þe senewes and veynes ben isaued by temperatnes and ynorsched. Ibid., VIII. iii. It was nede þat þere were wateres to bringe þat heuenlich heete to temperattnes.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, Ld. Chandos, 56. I … would not spare But liberall be, fraught with temperatenesse.
1651. Life of Bucer, in Fuller’s Abel Rediv. (1867), I. 186. He was much admired … for his temperateness in his diet.
1746. R. James, Health’s Impr., Introd. 56. All Heat beyond Temperateness … must necessarily be pernicious in all Distempers, where there is a Tendency to an alcaline Putrefaction.
b. Self-restraint; freedom from passion or mental heat; mildness, calmness.
1595. Daniel, Civ. Wars (1609), I. xxv. Langley; whose mild temperatness Did tend unto a calmer quietnesse.
1865. Sat. Rev., 18 Feb., 184/2. The peculiar temperateness of assertion, for which extremely young men are so notorious.
1871. Athenæum, 15 July, 84. The same temperateness and fairness is displayed; while the author maintains what is commonly called orthodoxy.
1917. W. Wilson, Address, 2 April, 4. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation.
2. spec. Of climatic conditions: Freedom from extremes of heat and cold or atmospheric disturbance; equability and mildness of climate.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. clxxi. [clxvii.] 506. By reason of this hayle the ayre was brought into a good temperatenesse.
1563. Golding, Cæsar, Pref. (1565), 7. The fertility of the soile, the temperatenesse of the aire.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 265. Where the temperatenesse of the aire, and liuely springs, with the fruitfulnesse of the soile, doth euery where yeeld plenty.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 2. The temperatenesse … of this Iland.
1750. J. Massy, Ess. Interest, in Marx, Capital (1887), II. 523. note. Men’s wants increase or diminish with the severity or temperateness of the climate they live in.
1828. Webster, s.v., The temperateness of the weather or of a climate.
