-ment
(Latin: a suffix; result of, means of, act of; place of action)
The suffix -meant is a final word element derived through Middle English and French from the Latin suffix -ment(um), originally used to form agent and action nouns from verbs, now used to form nouns and denominative verbs in several related senses:
- "An action, process, or skill" denoted by the combining root: rearmament, tournament, management.
- "A result, object, or agent of an action" named by the joining root: entombment, enthrallment, agreement.
- "The means or instrument of an action": implement, medicament, reinforcement.
- "The place of an action" named by the first root: battlement, ambushment, settlement.
- "A state or condition" specified by the first root: bewilderment, predicament, bereavement.
The verb combinations show no change in basic form: cement, compliment, lament.
Principal parts: -menting, -mented, -mented.
Related forms: -mentum (singular); -menta, -menti, -ments (plurals).
readjustment
regiment
reinstatement
relinquishment
1. The act of giving up and abandoning a struggle or s task, etc.
2. A verbal act of renouncing a claim, or a right, or a position, etc.
3. To retire from; to give up or to abandon.
4. To put aside or desist from (something practiced, professed, or intended).
5. To let go; to surrender.
6. To cease holding physically; to release: "He finally had to relinquish his grip.
renouncement
repayment
1. Payment of a debt or obligation.
2. The act of returning money received previously.
replenishment
requirement
1. Something that is needed for a particular purpose.
2. Anything that is obligatory or demanded.
3. An act or process of requiring something.
revealment
sediment
1. The matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid; lees; dregs.
2. Solid fragments of inorganic or organic material that come from the weathering of rock and are carried and deposited by wind, water, or ice.
3. Insoluble material that sinks to the bottom of a liquid, as in hypostasis.
segment
sentiment
An idea, opinion, or attitude based on feeling or emotion rather than reason.
statement
supplement
temperament
1. The manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting characteristic of a specific person; such as, a nervous temperament. "Temperament is a special subcommittee of character; it is less intellect than instinct, more about music than lyrics." - Nancy Giggs
2. The distinguishing mental and physical characteristics of a human being according to medieval physiology, resulting from dominance of one of the four humors.
3. Excessive irritability or sensitiveness: "He was an actor with too much temperament."
4. Etymology: existing since about 1412, "proportioned mixture of elements", from Latin
temperamentum, "proper mixture"; from
temperare, "to mix".
In medieval theory, it meant a combination of qualities (hot, cold, moist, dry) that determined the nature of an organism; this was extended to a combination of the four humors (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic) that made up a person's characteristic disposition.
The general sense of "habit of mind, natural disposition" is from 1821; then temperamental, "of or pertaining to temperament" appeared in about 1646; and in the sense of "moody" it is recorded from about 1907.
What people are trying to get at when they use the word
temperament is something along the lines of instinct; how someone approaches a situation and particularly how someone approaches a crisis.
—Beverly Gage, Yale University; as seen in
"What Kind of Temperament is Best?" by Nancy Gibbs; TIME;
Octover 27, 2008; page 40.
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