Word of the Day: Temerity
temerity
te-mer-i-ty / tə-mĕr-ĭ-tē
noun
1. extreme boldness ; recklessness ; audacity
Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth, and youth with contempt on the scrupulosity of age.
Samuel Johnson, 1709 – 1784
etymology
Through the Middle English noun temeryte from the Latin feminine noun temeritas, temeritatis (blind chance, accident, rashness, foolhardiness, recklessness), which was combined from the Latin adverb temere (blindly, thoughtlessly, rashly, by chance, randomly) and the feminine-abstract-noun-forming suffix -tas, -tatis.
Thank you to Allen Ward for providing this etymology of temerity.
