Both Uses of
temperate
in
Jane Eyre
- Bertha Mason, the true daughter of an infamous mother, dragged me through all the hideous and degrading agonies which must attend a man bound to a wife at once intemperate and unchaste.†
p. 353.7 *intemperate = given to excess -- especially of weather or behaviorstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in intemperate means not and reverses the meaning of temperate. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Perfect beauty is a strong expression; but I do not retrace or qualify it: as sweet features as ever the temperate clime of Albion moulded; as pure hues of rose and lily as ever her humid gales and vapoury skies generated and screened, justified, in this instance, the term.†
p. 418.2
Definition:
lacking extremes -- especially of weather, climate, or behavior