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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Tĕm'per-a-ment, n.

noun

n. [Fr. tempérament, Pr. temperamen, Sp. & It. temperamento, Lat. temperamentum. See supra.] 1. Internal constitution; state with respect to the predominance of any single quality or the relative proportion of different qualities, or constituent parts; temperature; as, the temperament of the body. Bodies are denominated “hot” and “cold” in proportion to the present temperament of that part of our body to which they are applied. Locke. 2. Due mixture of different qualities; a condition brought about by mutual compromises or concessions. [Obs.] The common law . . . has reduced the kingdom to its just state and temperament. Hale. However, I forejudge not any probable expedient, any temperament that can be found in things of this nature, so disputable on either side. Milton.

  1. The act of tempering or modifying; adjustment, as of clashing rules, interests, passions, or the like, or the means by which such adjustment is effected. “Wholesome temperaments of the rashness of popular assemblies.” Mackintosh.
  2. (Mus.) A system of compromises in the tuning of organs, piano-fortes, and the like, whereby the tones generated with the vibrations of a ground-tone, are mutually modified and in part canceled, until their number is reduced to the actual practicable scale of twelve tones to the octave, which scale, although in so far artificial, is yet closely suggestive of its origin in nature, and which tuning, although not mathematically and strictly true, yet satisfies the ear, while it has the convenience that the same twelve fixed tones answer for every key or scale, C♯ becoming identical with D♭, and so on.
  3. (Med.) The peculiar physical and mental character of an individual arising from the relations and proportions between the constituent parts of the body; natural organization or constitution.

Dunglison. Equal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations from mathematically true pitch are distributed among all the keys alike. — Unequal temperament, that in which the variations are thrown into the keys least used.