temerarious, a. Now only literary.
(tɛməˈrɛərɪəs)
[f. L. temerāri-us fortuitous, rash (f. temere blindly, rashly (see temerous) + -āri-us; cf. contr-ārius, extr-ārius, necess-ārius) + -ous.]
1. Characterized by temerity; unreasonably adventurous; reckless, heedless, rash.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 620/2 He is somwhat ouer temerarious & bold. a 1533 Frith Answ. More (1548) E vj b, Because they shall not of temeraryous presumpcion reiect this olde father. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xvi. §37 The King was one of the first that entred [the breach], choosing rather to be thought temerarious than timorous. 1645 Hammond View Infallib. 38 Your resolves are temerarious and presumptuous. 1781 Johnson in Boswell (1887) IV. 130 Does it not suppose, that the former judgment was temerarious or negligent? 1890 J. R. Lunn in Ch. Times 21 Feb. 196/4, I do not think any one will be temerarious enough to maintain that. |
† 2. Acting or happening at random; fortuitous, casual, haphazard. Obs.
| 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. ix. (1701) 386/1 Now in heaven nothing is produced casually, nothing temerarious. 1682 Norris Hierocles 53 But we should ascribe nothing..to a fortuitous and temerarious cause. 1775 Harris Philos. Arrangem. iii, These two principles are not merely casual and temerarious. |
Hence temeˈrariousness.
| 1711 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 133 He was overruled by the temerariousness of Orange. 1775 Ash, Temerariousness, rashness, temerity. |