To dilute, qualify, or soften by adding something more agreeable; to moderate.

The *temper* root keeps its basic meaning—“to mix” or “to keep within limits”—in the English word *temper*. When you temper something, you mix it with some balancing quality or substance so as to avoid anything extreme. Thus, it's often said that a judge must temper justice with mercy. Young people only gradually learn to temper their natural enthusiasms with caution. And in dealing with others, we all try to temper our honesty with sensitivity.

(1) Moderation in satisfying appetites or passions. (2) The drinking of little or no alcohol.

Since *temperance* means basically “moderation,” you might assume that, with respect to alcohol, *temperance* would mean moderate consumption, or “social drinking.” Instead, the word has usually meant the prohibition of all alcohol. To temperance leaders such as Carry Nation, the safest form of drinking was no alcohol at all. Believing she was upholding the law, Nation began her hatchet-swinging attacks on saloons, known as “hatchetations,” in the 1890s. National prohibition did eventually come—and go—but largely through the efforts of more *temperate* (that is, moderate) reformers.

Not moderate or mild; excessive, extreme.

Since the prefix *in-* generally means “not,” *intemperate* is the opposite of *temperate*. Someone intemperate rejects moderation in favor of excess. A religious fanatic is likely to preach with intemperate zeal, and a mean theater critic may become intemperate in her criticism of a new play, filling her review with intemperate language. And both *temperate* and *intemperate* also often refer to weather; a region with an intemperate climate isn't where all of us would choose to build a house.

(1) A highly contagious viral disease, especially of dogs. (2) A highly contagious and usually fatal viral disease, especially of cats, marked by the destruction of white blood cells.

Back when doctors believed that our moods were affected by an imbalance of mysterious fluids in the body, or “humors,” distemper often meant moodiness, as when Shakespeare's Hamlet is asked “What is the source of your distemper?” Today the word is used only for true physical conditions. The distemper that affects dogs, often called canine distemper, also affects foxes, wolves, mink, raccoons, and ferrets. It can be treated with medication, but is generally fatal if not treated. Distemper in cats, known as feline distemper or *panleukopenia*, actually isn't related to canine distemper. If caught quickly, it too can be treated. And both types can be prevented by vaccination, so all responsible pet owners get their animals vaccinated.

(1) To clear of guilt or sin. (2) To free of something unwanted or considered impure.

In some cultures, a ritual bath or prayer is performed to purge guilt or evil spirits. The Minoans of ancient Crete may have used human sacrifice as a way of purging the entire community, which is fine for the community but rough on the victims. In many cultures, people periodically purge themselves physically—that is, clean out their digestive tracts—by taking strong laxatives; this used to be a popular springtime ritual, and herbal *purgatives* were readily available.

To cleanse of something morally harmful or offensive; to remove objectionable parts from.

*Expurgation* has a long and questionable history. Perhaps history's most famous *expurgator*, or censor, was the English editor Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published the *Family Shakespeare,* an expurgated edition of Shakespeare's plays that omitted or changed any passages that, in Bowdler's opinion, couldn't decently be read aloud in a family. As a result, the term *bowdlerize* is now a synonym of *expurgate.*

(1) Cleansing or purifying, especially from sin. (2) Causing a significant looseness of the bowels.

*Purgative* can be used as a noun as well as an adjective. For centuries, doctors prescribed purgatives—that is, laxatives—for all kinds of ailments, not knowing anything better to do. Physical cleansing has always reminded people of emotional and spiritual cleansing, as expressed in the saying “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” So we may say, for example, that confession has a purgative effect on the soul. Some psychologists used to claim that expressing your anger is purgative; but in fact it may generally be no better for your emotional life than taking a laxative, and can sometimes really foul things up.

(1) According to Roman Catholic doctrine, the place where the souls of those who have died in God's grace must pay for their sins through suffering before ascending to heaven. (2) A place or state of temporary suffering or misery.

*Purgatory* is the place where the soul is cleansed of all impurities, as Dante described in his great poem *The Divine Comedy.* Today *purgatory* can refer to any place or situation in which suffering and misery are felt to be sharp but temporary. Waiting to hear the results of a test, or whether you got a good job, can be a purgatory. And an endless after-dinner speech can make an entire roomful of people feel as if they're in purgatory.