Etymology

temporize

temp·or·ize
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Today it means: To deliberately act evasively or prolong a discussion in order to gain time or postpone a decision, sometimes so that a compromise can be reached or simply to make a conversation more temperate; to stall for time. Full definition →

Middle French temporiser ← Medieval Latin temporizāre ← Latin temporāre
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*temp-
  2. Latin · derived fromtemporāre“to delay, put off”
  3. Medieval Latin · derived fromtemporizāre
  4. Middle French · derived fromtemporiser“to wait one's time, temporize”
  5. English todaytemporize

From Middle French temporiser (“to wait one's time, temporize”) + English -ize (suffix forming verbs). Temporiser is derived from Medieval Latin temporizāre, from Latin temporāre (“to delay, put off”) + -izāre (suffix forming the present active infinitive of verbs). Temporāre is derived from tempor-, the inflected stem of tempus (“age, time, period; season of the year; due, opportune, or proper time”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *temp-, *ten- (“to extend, stretch (in the sense of a stretch of time)”), or *temh₁- (“to cut (in the sense of a section of time)”)) + -āre. Compare temporalize.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.