資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Temperature \Tem"per*a*ture\, n. [F. temp['e]rature, L.
   temperatura due measure, proportion, temper, temperament.]
   1. Constitution; state; degree of any quality.

            The best composition and temperature is, to have
            openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit,
            dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to
            feign, if there be no remedy.         --Bacon.

            Memory depends upon the consistence and the
            temperature of the brain.             --I. Watts.

   2. Freedom from passion; moderation. [Obs.]

            In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
            Most goodly temperature you may descry. --Spenser.

   3. (Physics) Condition with respect to heat or cold,
      especially as indicated by the sensation produced, or by
      the thermometer or pyrometer; degree of heat or cold; as,
      the temperature of the air; high temperature; low
      temperature; temperature of freezing or of boiling.

   4. Mixture; compound. [Obs.]

            Made a temperature of brass and iron together.
                                                  --Holland.

   {Absolute temperature}. (Physics) See under {Absolute}.

   {Animal temperature} (Physiol.), the nearly constant
      temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded
      (homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source
      of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the
      food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during
      respiration. See {Homoiothermal}.

   {Temperature sense} (Physiol.), the faculty of perceiving
      cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of
      temperature in external objects. --H. N. Martin.