Etymology

temerity

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Today it means: Reckless boldness; foolish bravery. Full definition →

Middle English temerite ← Old French temerité ← Latin temeritās
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromtemeritās“chance, accident, rashness”
  2. Old French · derived fromtemerité
  3. Middle English · inherited fromtemerite
  4. English todaytemerity

From Middle English temerite, temeryte, from Old French temerité, from Latin temeritās (“chance, accident, rashness”), from temere (“by chance, casually, rashly”). By surface analysis, temer(arious) + -ity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.