http://wordie.org/words/temerity Comments for the word 'Temerity' http://wordie.org http://wordie.org/words/temerity#comments Temerity n. excessive confidence or boldness; <a href="/words/audacity">audacity</a>.<br /><br />Implies exposing oneself needlessly to danger while failing to estimate one's chances of success. <br /><br />ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin temeritas, from temere ‘rashly.’<br /><blockquote>He didn't know that in some places, like the country that Rahel came form, various kinds of despair competed for primacy. And that <i>personal</i> despair could never be desperate enough. That something happened when personal turmoil dropped by at the wayside shrine of the vast, violent, circling, driving, ridiculous, insane, unfeasible public turmoil of a nation. That Big God howled like a hot wind, and demanded obeisance. Then Small God (cozy and contained, private and limited) came away cauterized, laughing numbly at his own <b>temerity</b>" (Roy 20)</blockquote><br /><br />Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.<br /> Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:38:12 +0000 http://wordie.org/words/temerity#comments