The corpus record — Latin

temeritas

recklessness

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

De Paenitentia 3 · 7.36/10k
Divus Titus 1 · 6.72/10k
Pro L. Flacco 7 · 6.42/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 21-25 - 22 11 · 6.4/10k
Otho 1 · 6.34/10k
Academica 3 · 6.16/10k
Antoninus Caracallus 1 · 4.9/10k
De Provinciis Consularibus In Senatu 2 · 3.9/10k
Pro M. Marcello 1 · 3.61/10k
Letters to and from Brutus 3 · 3.15/10k
Pro Q. Ligario 1 · 3.05/10k
Pro P. Sestio 5 · 2.98/10k

Densest 12 of 111 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. temeritas — de Vaan

temeritas 'recklessness' (PL+), temerarius 'accidental, reckless' (PI.+), temerare 'to violate, desecrate' (Verg.+), Pit. *temesi [loc.sg.] PIE *temH-os- [n.] 'darkness'. IE cognates: Skt. tamos- [n.] 'darkness, blinding', Av. tzmah- [n.j 'darkness'; Lith. temti 'to become dark, to become evening5, tamsa 'darkness'. A petrified loc.sg.froma noun *temes- < *temH-o/es- [n.] 'darkness' with clear cognates in the other … — [de Vaan, s.v. temeritas, p. 623]

2. tĕmĕrĭtas — Lewis & Short

tĕmĕrĭtas, ātis,

I f [temere].

I Hap. chance, accident (so rare but class., cf.: fortuna. casus): in quibus nulla temeritas, sed ordo apparet, Cic. N. D. 2, 32, 82 quid enim sors est? Idem propemodum, quod micare, quod talos jacere, quod tesseras quibus in rebus temeritas et casus, non ratio nec consilium valet, id. Div 2, 41, 85 fortunam in temeritatem declinando corrumpebant, Sall. Fragm. ap. Non. 385, 5, cf. (Pacuvius) ait, verius esse temeritate quam fortuna res regi, Auct. Her. 2, 23, 36: illa superiora caduca et incerta posita non tam in consiliis nostris quam in fortunae temeritate, Cic. Lael. 6, 20.—

II Rashness, heedlessness, thoughtlessness, hastiness, want of consideration, indiscretion, foolhardiness, temerity; a rash, inconsiderate, or unfounded opinion (the predom. signif. of the word, syn.: inconsiderantia, audacia): omnis actio vacare debet temeritate et neglegentia, Cic. Off. 1, 29, 101. multi faciunt multa temeritate quādam, sine judicio vel modo, id. ib. 1, 15, 49: numquam temeritas cum sapientiā miscetur. id. Marcell. 2, 7; duci ad judicandum impetu et temeritate, id. Planc. 4, 9: temeritatem cupiditatemque militum reprehendit, Caes. B. G. 7, 52: inpellit alios avaritia, alios iracundia et temeritas, id. ib, 7, 42; Sall. J. 7, 5; temeritas est florentis aetatis, prudentia senescentis, Cic. Sen. 6, 20; so opp prudentia, Hirt. B. G. 8, 8; (with ignorantia) Cic. Ac. 1, 11, 42; (with inscitia) Liv 6, 30, 6; 42, 49, 5; (with inscientia) id. 22, 25, 12.—In plur., rash, inconsiderate acts, Cic. Sest. 28, 61; cf. Quint. 9, 4, 97

In the wild

temeritatem Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 4.1.14
temeritate Suetonius, Tiberius 18.1
temeritatique Livy, Ab urbe condita, books 1-5 - 4 p2
temeritate Cicero, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 1.43
temeritatis Cicero, De Oratore 2.63
temeritatem Livy, Ab urbe condita 1.2.65.4

6 of 381 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. temeritas (scan p. 623; entry #1776). Root candidates: *temes-, *temH-.

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.