tempestuous

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English

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WOTD – 18 November 2024

Etymology

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From Late Middle English tempestious, tempestous, tempestuous (“stormy, turbulent, tempestuous”),[1] from Anglo-Norman tempestous, and Old French tempesteus, tempestos, tempestous, tempestuose (modern French tempétueux), and directly from its etymon Latin tempestuōsus (“stormy, turbulent, tempestuous; impetuous”),[2] from tempestās, tempestūs (“point or period of time; season; weather, specifically bad weather; storm, tempest”) (from tempus (“period of time; (rare) weather”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *temh₁- (“to cut”) or *ten- (“to extend, stretch”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly; prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is equivalent to tempest +‎ -uous (a variant of -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, denoting the presence of a quality, typically in abundance)).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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tempestuous (comparative more tempestuous, superlative most tempestuous)

  1. Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a tempest; also, of a place: frequently experiencing tempests; (very) stormy.
    Synonyms: (obsolete) breme, nimbose, (rare) procellous
    Antonym: untempestuous
    Coordinate terms: blusterous, blustery, cloudy, gusty, rainy, thundery, windy
    • 1509 December 24 (Gregorian calendar), Alexander Barclay, “[The Argument]”, in Sebastian Brant, translated by Alexander Barclay, edited by T[homas] H[ill] Jamieson, The Ship of Fools, volume I, Edinburgh: William Paterson; London: Henry Sotheran & Co., published 1874, →OCLC, page 18:
      I wyl aduertise you that this Boke is named the Shyp of foles of the worlde: For this worlde is nought els but a tempestous se in the whiche we dayly wander and are caste in dyuers tribulacions paynes and aduersitees: some by ignoraunce and some by wilfulnes: wherfore such doers ar worthy to be called foles.
    • 1610, William Camden, “Huntingdonshire”, in Philémon Holland, transl., Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press for] Georgii Bishop & Ioannis Norton, →OCLC, page 501:
      [A] turbulent and tempeſtuous ſtorme aroſe, that encloſed them on everie ſide, ſo that laying aſide all hope, they vvere in utter deſpaire of their life, ſecuritie, or any helpe at all.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 1, column 1:
      A tempeſtuous noiſe of Thunder and Lightning heard: Enter a Ship-maſter, and a Boteſvvaine.
      A stage direction; the scene takes place aboard a ship at sea.
    • 1692 December 15, Richard Bentley, A Confutation of Atheism from the Origin and Frame of the World. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] H[enry] Mortlock […], published 1693, →OCLC, pages 25–26:
      [T]he Months of March and September, the tvvo Æquinoxes of Our year, are the moſt vvindy and tempeſtuous, the moſt unſettled and unequable of Seaſons in moſt Countries of the VVorld.
    • 1718, Virgil, “Book the Second”, in Joseph Trapp, transl., The Æneis of Virgil, Translated into Blank Verse, volume I, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 54, lines 130–132:
      But oft the Sea / Tempeſtuous kept them back, and Southern VVinds / Deter'd them.
    • 1730, James Thomson, “Winter. Inscribed to the Right Honourable the Lord Wilmington.”, in The Seasons, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 200, lines 177–182:
      Huge Uproar lords it vvide. The clouds commixt / VVith ſtars ſvvift-gliding ſvveep along the sky. / All nature reels. Till nature's King, vvho oft / Amid tempeſtuous darkneſs dvvells alone, / And on the vvings of the careering vvind / VValks dreadfully ſerene, commands a calm; […]
    • 1821 March 24, William Cobbett, “Naples”, in Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register, volume 38, number 12, London: […] C[harles Robert] Clement [for] John M. Cobbett, […], published 12 March 1825, →OCLC, column 828:
      And now, he has got us, or, rather, has got himself and the Honourable House, riding on a stormy and tempestous wave and seated upon a short and narrow Plank; a situation that I really could wish to see nobody in; no, not even (when I recollect what tempestous waves are) the punning Orator himself; […]
    • 1831, George Muir, “The Coursing Match. Canto I.”, in The Sports of the Field, […], Lanark, Lanarkshire: […] George Roberton, →OCLC, page 10:
      The day was tempestous with rain and with wind, / Even chargers were seen to draw back; […]
    • 1887 January, Frederic A[ugustus] Lucas, “Notes of a Bird Catcher”, in J[oel] A[saph] Allen, editor, The Auk: A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology, volume IV (New Series; volume XII overall), number I, New York, N.Y.: L. S. Foster for the American Ornithologists’ Union, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 1–2:
      Like all other sea birds, Albatrosses can be most easily enticed into biting during tempestous weather when, having been prevented for days from procuring their regular amount of food, the pangs of hunger overcome their natural distrust.
    • 1898, George H. Hart, attorney for the plaintiff-respondent, Daniel Sullivan, plaintiff’s witness, Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, in the First Judicial Department. Catherine Kay, Plaintiff-Respondent, vs. Metropolitan Street Railway Company, Defendant-Appellant. Case on Appeal, New York, N.Y.: Douglas Taylor & Co., […], page 223:
      Q. The night of this accident was an extremely tempestuous night, was it not? A. Well, it was a kind of a snow storm that night. […] I would regard such a night as a tempestuous night.
    • 1904 July, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC, page 262:
      It was a wild, tempestuous night towards the close of November. […] Outside the wind howled down Baker Street, while the rain beat fiercely against the windows. It was strange there in the very depths of the town, with ten miles of man's handiwork on every side of us, to feel the iron grip of Nature, and to be conscious that to the huge elemental forces all London was no more than the molehills that dot the fields.
    • 2012, Donovan Hohn, “Going Overboard”, in Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea, London: Union Books, →ISBN, pages 9–10:
      We know that the ship departed Hong Kong on January 6, that it arrived in the Port of Tacoma on January 16, a day behind schedule, and that the likely cause for this delay was rough weather. […] [O]n January 10, the Ever Laurel did not fax a weather report to the National Weather Service in Washington, D.C., but the following morning a ship in its vicinity did, describing hurricane-force winds and waves thirty-six feet high. If the Ever Laurel had encountered similarly tempestuous conditions, we can imagine, if only vaguely, what might have transpired: despite its grandeur, rocked by waves as tall as brownstones, the colossal vessel—a floating warehouse weighing 28,904 deadweight tons and powered by a diesel engine the size of a barn—would have rolled and pitched and yawed about like a toy in a Jacuzzi.
  2. (figurative) Characterized by disorderly, frenetic, or violent activity; stormy, tumultuous, turbulent; also, of a person, their behaviour or nature, etc.: characterized by bouts of bad temper or sudden changes of mood; impetuous, stormy, temperamental.
    Antonym: untempestuous
    After their tempestuous argument, they did not speak to each other for weeks.
    • a. 1587 (date written), Philip Sidney, “Psalm XXXI. In te, Domine, speravi.”, in The Psalmes of David […], London: From the Chiswick Press by C[harles] Whittingham, for Robert Triphook, […], published 1823, →OCLC, page 50:
      Yet I confesse in that tempestious hast [i.e., haste], / I said, that I from out thy sight was cast: / But thou didst heare, when I to thee did moane, / Then love the Lord all ye that feele his grace: […]
    • 1610, William Camden, “Romans in Britaine”, in Philémon Holland, transl., Britain, or A Chorographicall Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press for] Georgii Bishop & Ioannis Norton, →OCLC, page 80:
      [H]e vvould not ſuffer any farther inquiſition and examination to be had of the conſpirators, for feare leſt by ſtriking a terror among ſo many, the tempeſtuous troubles of the provinces vvhich vvere vvell appeaſed might revive again.
    • 1648, Robert Herrick, “Delight in Disorder”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 29:
      A Svveet diſorder in the dreſſe / Kindles in cloathes a vvantonneſſe: / […] / A vvinning vvave (deſerving Note) / In the tempeſtuous petticote: / […] Doe more bevvitch me, then vvhen Art / Is too preciſe in every part.
    • 1656 May (first performance), Will. D’avenant [i.e., William Davenant], The Siege of Rhodes […], London: […] J. M. for Henry Herringman, […], published 1659, →OCLC, 1st entry, page 4:
      VVhat various Noiſes do mines[sic] ears invade? / And have a Conſort made? / The ſhriller Trumpet, and tempeſtuous Drum: / The deaf'ning clamor from the Canons vvombe; / VVhich through the Air like ſuddain Thunder breaks, / Seems calm to Souldiers ſhouts and VVomens ſhrieks.
    • 1657–1659 (first performance), Will. D’avenant [i.e., William Davenant], The Siege of Rhodes: The Second Part, […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], published 1663, →OCLC, Act I, scene [i], page 23:
      I at night / In vain ſeek Sleep vvith a tempeſtuous VVife. / VVink at my ſhame, that I, vvhoſe Banners brave / The vvorld, ſhould thus to Beauty be a Slave.
    • 1753, Marcus Tullius Cicero, “Letter XXVI. To Ligarius.”, in William Melmoth, transl., The Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero to Several of His Friends: […], volume II, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, book IX, pages 366–367:
      Preſerve then, my friend, a firm and vigorous frame of mind: and if you bore the dark and tempeſtuous ſeaſon of your affairs vvith fortitude, let their preſent more ſerene and favorable aſpect fill your heart vvith chearfulneſs.
    • 1782, [Frances Burney], “A Perturbation”, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume IV, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book VIII, page 205:
      Cecilia vvas ſtill in this tempeſtuous ſtate, vvhen a meſſage vvas brought her that a gentleman vvas belovv ſtairs, vvho begged to have the honour of ſeeing her.
    • 1853, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Lecture the Second. Congreve and Addison.”, in The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century. […], London: Smith, Elder, & Co. […]; Bombay, Maharashtra: Smith, Taylor, & Co., →OCLC, page 44:
      [T]he brightest part of [Jonathan] Swift's story, the pure star in that dark and tempestuous life of Swift's, is his love for Hester Johnson [i.e., Esther Johnson].
    • 1865, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Atalanta in Calydon. A Tragedy, London: Edward Moxon and Co., […], →OCLC, page 47:
      Sing, mix the wind with clamour, smite and shake / Sonorous timbrels and tumultuous hair, / And fill the dance up with tempestuous feet, […]
    • a. 1967 (date written), Frank O’Hara, “Poem”, in Donald Allen, editor, The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of California Press, published 1995, →ISBN, page 211:
      Tempestuous breaths! we watch a girl / walking in her garden—no flowers, a wintry shrub / and the cold clouds passing over. […] and through the cloth against her flesh / she feels the flashes of our heat.
    • 2002, Shelley Peterson, “The Ghost”, in Stagestruck, Toronto, Ont.: Key Porter Books, →ISBN, page 45:
      There were many stories circulating about Dancer [a horse], some fact, some fiction. Gossip about money offered for him and turned down. Rumors about his tempestuous disposition. Stories about people who'd tried to ride him and got hurt. Abby hoped that she wouldn't be another of those. If the fall didn't crush her, the disappointment would.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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characterized by disorderly, frenetic, or violent activity — see stormy,‎ tumultuous,‎ turbulent
of a person, their behaviour or nature, etc.: characterized by bouts of bad temper or sudden changes of mood — see impetuous,‎ stormy,‎ temperamental

References

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  1. ^ “tempestǒus, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “tempestuous, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “tempestuous, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022; “† tempestous, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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