Also 4–7 -er-; 4–5 -el, -ell(e, -ale, 4–6 -alle, 4–7 -all. [ad. L. temporāl-is, f. tempus, tempor-, a space or point of time, time; in B. 2, ad. eccl. L. temporāle.]
A. adj. 1. Lasting or existing only for a time; passing, temporary. Now rare or merged in 2.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xii. 21. He hath nat roote in hym self, but it is temporal; that is, it lastith bot a litil tyme. Ibid. (1382), 2 Cor. iv. 18. Sothli tho thingis that ben seyn, ben temperal, or duryng by short tyme.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. I. Ark, 500. [Rainbow] A temporall beauty of the lampfull skies.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., I. 49. Others begin to run in spring,… and cease again towards autumn, and are called temporal Springs.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes (1886), 127. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls … is only a … living slumber to the man who sleeps a-field.
2. Of or pertaining to time as the sphere of human life; terrestrial as opposed to heavenly; of man’s present life as distinguished from a future existence; concerning or involving merely the material interests of this world; worldly, earthly. (Opp. to eternal or spiritual.)
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, vi. (Thomas), 315. Þat þai … ȝarnis til hafe na temporale gud, outane anerly clath & fud.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 5. Temperal almes.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 7066. So that the tour were stuffed wel With alle richesse temporel.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1036. The lytell goodes temporals that it hath pleased to God to sende me.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Mark ii. 15. He would not set up a temporal Kingdom.
1772. Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782), I. 306. The Jews … expected … a temporal prince.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, vii. 91. Fear for the temporal prosperity of the whole race.
3. Secular as opposed to sacred; lay as distinguished from clerical. Of law: civil or common as distinguished from canon. Of rule, authority, or government: civil as distinguished from ecclesiastical. Lords Temporal: see LORD sb. 9. (Opp. to spiritual.)
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr., 24. Itt longith to som temporalle men the which han soueraynte.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), v. 43. He was Lord Spirituelle & Temporelle.
c. 1440. Brut, 468. Þe King … borowed a somme of gold þurghout þe Reame, of temporall peple, þat amounted a c. Ml marc of money, to sende his peple ouer the see.
1451. Capgrave, Life St. Aug., 27. Ambrose had … mad neuly many ympnys, for all þe temperal ympnys ar ny of his making, as primo dierum omnium, & þoo þat folow.
1578. Knaresborough Wills (Surtees), I. 130. And after come to practice as a temporall Lawyer.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 190. His Scepter shewes the force of temporall power, The attribute to awe and Maiestie.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. (1691), 36. The Government of Ireland is by the King, 21 Bishops … and the Temporal Peers.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scot. in 1772, 149. A charter erecting the lands belonging to the abbacy into a temporal lordship.
1898. C. H. Bowden, Dict. Cath., Temporal Power of the Pope.—1. His right to possess and govern the Patrimony of St. Peter and other States of the Church; 2. His rights as Vicar of Christ in relation to other sovereigns and states.
† 4. Applied to ‘artificial hours,’ i.e., twelfths of an ‘artificial day’: see ARTIFICIAL 5. Obs. rare.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. lii. (1636), 370. Note also that the unequall houres are called sometime artificiall, and sometime temporall houres.
5. a. Gram. and Pros. Relating to or depending on the quantity of syllables (i.e., the time taken in pronouncing them). Temporal augment (Gr. Gram.): see AUGMENT sb. 2.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Temporal Augment, an Augmentation which is made in a Greek Verb, by increasing in several Tenses, the quantity of the first Vowel or Dipthong, as ἄγω ἦγον.
1860. Marsh, Lect. Eng. Lang., 540. The ancient temporal metres were inexhaustible, because the permutations and combinations of the prosodical feet were infinite.
1867. trans. Curtius’s Gr. Gram. (ed. 2), § 235. The Temporal Augment is used in all verbs which begin with a vowel.
b. Gram. Of or pertaining to the tenses of a verb; of tense; also, expressing or denoting time, as an adverb, a clause, etc.
1786. H. Tooke, Purley, II. viii. (1798), 650. Our language has made but small progress, compared either with the Greek or with the Latin … even in this Modal and Temporal abbreviation.
1886. W. G. Hale in Amer. Jrnl. Philol., VII. 459. The tenseless phrase in order to, used alike for present and past purposes in English, fails to convey the temporal ideas conveyed by the Latin present and imperfect subjunctive. Ibid. (1889), X. 334. In Latin all the uses of the ablative absolute sprang from the temporal use of the ablative.
6. In general sense: Of, pertaining, or relating to time, the present time, or a particular time.
1877. Mallock, New Republic, II. III. ii. 15. Merely temporal people, who are just as narrow-minded and dull as … merely local people—the natives of a neighbourhood.
1886. A. Weir, Hist. Basis Mod. Europe (1889), 481. A vast quantity of temporal and spatial experience.
1906. D. W. Forrest, Authority Christ, VI. i. 309. In speaking of the last day we are using a temporal expression for an unspeakable and timeless reality.
B. sb. 1. a. That which is temporal: esp. in pl. Temporal things or matters.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 32. Noght only of the temporal But of the spirital also. Ibid., 276. To day is venym schad In holi cherche of temporal, which medleth with the spirital.
1471. Fortescue, Wks. (1869), 534. In his persone and his kingdome, which bothe be temporales onely.
1625. Burges, Pers. Tithes, 16. Hee that partakes of Gods blessing in Temporals.
1755. Young, Centaur, iv. Joy from temporals, is a terrestrial joy, And, like all things terrestrial, has a dreg in it.
1897. H. Drummond, Ideal Life, 140. Trying by some other way than through these homely temporals, to learn the spiritual life.
b. Temporal power, possession, or estate; TEMPORALITY; chiefly in pl. = temporalities.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 277. That sen it nechit Natur, thar alleris mastriss, Thai couth nocht trete but entent of the Temperale.
1545. Brinklow, Compl., xxii. (1874), 51. Of their temporals, let .viij. or .x. pound and not aboue of euery hundreth be granted to the Kyng.
1594. R. Ashley, trans. Loys le Roy, 54 b. The Pope commaundeth ouer the temporall of the Church called S. Peters patrimonie, as King.
1795. Abbe Barruel, Hist. Clergy during Fr. Rev., 99. They did not reject the new French constitution, or the laws concerning temporals.
1863. Blyth, Hist. Fincham, 39. The temporals were such lands or other property as may have accrued to the church by gift or purchase, and belonged chiefly to the regular or monastic clergy.
1880. Browning, Dram. Idylls, Ser. II. Pietro, 362. I’ll to Rome, before Rome’s feet the temporal-supreme lay prostrate!
2. (Also in L. form Temporale.) That part of the breviary and missal which contains the daily offices in the order of the ecclesiastical year, as distinct from those proper for Saints’ days: cf. SANCTORALE.
14[?]. Table Lessons, etc., in Wyclif’s Bible, IV. 690. Here endith the Temperal, and here bigynneth the Propre Sanctorum.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 755/21. Hoc temperalium, a temperal.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 63/2. This is the Rewle of the temporal thurgh the yere.
1517. in Archæologia, LXI. 83. Item a legend hoole of the temporall…. Item a legend hoole of the Sanctorum.
1872. Temporale [see SANCTORALE[.
