Temporal (meaning)

The adjective temporal has a number of meanings, and can give rise to a number of problems. It is pronounced 'TEMP-er-el', IPA: /ˈtɛmp ^ər əl/; to stress it as if it were related to the adjective 'oral' is an error. The adverb temporally is pronounced in a similar way. You may also want to see AWE's page about a not uncommon confusion at Temporal - temporary.

The word temporal is derived from the Latin tempus, whose basic meaning is 'time', 'season'. (Cf. the Latin motto common on sundials, etc, tempus fugit, '[the] Time flies'.) This gives temporal its basic meaning in English:

• 'of, or to do with, time', as in the opposition between temporal and 'spatial' measurements, or dimensions;
• 'to do with this world [or life]', perceived as in opposition to the 'eternal life' of Heaven, as imagined by Christians;
• this leads to 'secular', 'not holy' as opposed to 'spiritual' - seen in the UK House of Lords, where hereditary peers are known as Lords Temporal, and bishops (of the Church of England) as 'Lords Spiritual'. A clergyman's temporalities (this is usually in the plural form) are his 'worldly possessions', the material wealth belonging to him or her and his or her church or office.
• There are also various technical meanings, in
  • prosody (particularly in quantitative metre, where temporal is sometimes virtually synonymous with 'quantitative;
  • grammar, where it may be synonymous with tense or express a refinement and sub-classification of discussion of tense; a temporal clause is a clause 'of time' (~ one communicating a time relationship), such as one beginning 'when' or 'while';
  • the temporal paradox is a problem much occupying writers of Science Fiction, whereby certain anomalies would be created were time travel possible, such as the effect on 'the present' were one to destroy an ancestor in 'the past' - before having descendants;
  • in Roman Catholic liturgies, it means those parts of a given service that are repeated daily, as opposed to those that vary according to which Saint's day is being celebrated (the Sanctorale);
  • in Geography, temporal sometimes provides a useful distinction in discussion of tides.
• Temporal can also be 'connected with the temples, which are part of the human head - the two flattened areas on the sides of the forehead, just above and behind the region of the eyes. So anatomist5s talk, for example, of
  • the temporal artery, the source of the pulse that can be seen and felt beating in the temples;
  • the temporal lobe [of the brain], which is involved in semantic understanding, auditory perception, of speech and music, for example, and memory.