tempor
Latintime, period
About This Root
The root tempor comes from Latin tempus, genitive temporis, which meant both "time" and "a particular season or period." To a Roman, tempus was not abstract clock-time so much as a stretch of time with edges — a span, an occasion, the right moment. From that single seed grew a surprisingly varied family.
The most literal child is temporal: temporis + -al = "relating to time." But it picked up a famous second life through the medieval church. Theologians split the world into two realms: the eternal (God, the soul, heaven) and the temporal — everything bound by time, meaning the here-and-now physical world. So temporal power came to mean worldly, earthly authority (a king's), as opposed to spiritual authority (the Pope's). One word, two faces: "having to do with time" and "of this passing world." (The temporal lobe of the brain is unrelated in sense — it sits by the temples of the head, a different Latin source.)
Add the suffix -ary ("relating to") and you get temporary: something that lasts only for a time, a limited span — therefore not permanent. Clip temporary down in casual office English and you get temp, the worker hired just for a while.
Put the prefix con- ("together, at the same") in front and you get contemporary: con- + tempus = existing "at the same time." From there it forks two ways: people who live in the same era are contemporaries (your contemporaries are your peers), and things that belong to the present era are contemporary (contemporary art, modern). Same word, slightly different aim — same-time-as-each-other vs. same-time-as-now.
Turn the root into a verb with -ize and you get temporize: literally "to act according to the time" — to play for time, to stall, to trim your behaviour to suit the moment rather than commit. The neutral idea of "timing your actions" curdled into the sense of evasive delay.
The surprise members are musical and stormy. Tempo entered English from Italian, where tempo (descended from the same tempus) means the time or speed of a piece of music — keep tempo, fast tempo. And tempestuous traces to Latin tempestas, "a (stretch of) weather, a season" — which drifted to mean specifically bad weather, a storm. So a tempest is literally "what the season throws at you," and tempestuous describes anything storm-like: wild seas, or a wild, turbulent love affair.
Two cousins worth knowing: tense (grammatical past/present/future) comes from the same tempus through Old French, and extempore ("out of the time" = on the spur of the moment, improvised) is a near relative. The whole family circles one idea — a span of time, the right moment — and then scatters into the worldly, the musical, and the stormy.
Think of a temp worker — hired only for a time, then gone. Every tempor- word is about time: temporary lasts only a while, contemporary means at the same time, tempo is musical time. Tie it to Italian tempo (speed of music) and you'll never lose the thread.
Core Words Deep Dive
The few words from this family worth telling in full — one by one.
The two-faced word of the family. From temporis ('time') + -al, it first just means 'relating to time' (temporal sequence, temporal order). But medieval theology gave it a second meaning: opposed to the eternal, it came to mean 'of this passing, earthly world.' That's why 'temporal power' is worldly/political authority, set against spiritual authority. Same word, two senses — read the context to know which.
con- ('at the same') + tempus ('time') = 'existing at the same time.' It splits two ways. As a noun, your contemporaries are people who lived or worked in your same era (Mozart and Haydn were contemporaries). As an adjective it usually means 'of the present era' — contemporary art is modern art. Don't confuse 'same time as each other' with 'same time as now.'
temporis ('time') + -ary ('relating to') = 'lasting only for a time.' The logic is simple: if something is tied to a limited span of time, it isn't permanent. This is the most transparent and most common member of the family, and the source of the clipped form 'temp.'
The stormy outlier. It traces to Latin tempestas ('a stretch of weather, a season'), itself from tempus. 'The weather a season brings' narrowed to mean specifically bad weather — a storm. So a tempest is what the season throws at you, and tempestuous means storm-like: literally wild weather, or figuratively a wild, turbulent relationship or mood.
Related Roots
Both mean "time," but tempor is Latin and chron is Greek (chronos). chron tends to be technical or scientific — chronology, chronic, synchronize, anachronism. tempor is more everyday — temporary, contemporary, tempo. Quick test: clinical/measured time → chron; ordinary 'for a while' time → tempor.
ann (Latin annus, 'year') is time measured in years — annual, anniversary, biennial — while tempor is time as a general span or moment. ann counts years; tempor talks about duration and timing.
Associated Words · 7
contemporary
Belonging to the same time period; modern; a person of the same era
temp
A temporary worker; to work as a temporary employee
tempestuous
Very stormy; characterized by violent emotions or turbulence
tempo
The speed at which music is played or events proceed
temporal
Relating to time or the material world, as opposed to spiritual matters
temporary
Lasting only a limited time; not permanent; a short-term employee
temporize
To delay or act evasively in order to gain time or avoid a decision