tempest: [13] Latin tempestās started off meaning nothing more alarming than ‘period of time’ (it was a derivative of tempus ‘time’, source of English temporary). Gradually, however, it progressed via ‘weather’ to ‘bad weather, storm’. Tempus moved in to take its place in the neutral sense ‘weather’, and provides the word for ‘weather’ in modern French (temps), Italian (tempo), Spanish (tiempo), and Romanian (timp). Other languages whose word for ‘weather’ comes from a term originally denoting ‘time’ include Russian (pogoda), Polish (czas), Czech (počasí), Latvian (laiks), and Breton (amzer). => temporary
tempest (n.)
"violent storm," late 13c., from Old French tempeste "storm; commotion, battle; epidemic, plague" (11c.), from Vulgar Latin *tempesta, from Latin tempestas "a storm; weather, season, time, point in time, season, period," also "commotion, disturbance," related to tempus "time, season" (see temporal).
Sense evolution is from "period of time" to "period of weather," to "bad weather" to "storm." Words for "weather" originally were words for "time" in languages from Russia to Brittany. Figurative sense of "violent commotion" in English is recorded from early 14c. Tempest in a teapot attested from 1818; the image in other forms is older, such as storm in a creambowl (1670s).
实用例句
1. I hadn't foreseen the tempest my request would cause.
我没有料到我的请求会掀起这么大一场风波。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The takeover provoked a tempest of criticism.
这次收购引发了潮水般的批评。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The sailors took in sail when the tempest was approaching.
暴风雨来临之际,水手们将帐篷放下.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. He won a tempest of applause when he ended his speech.
演讲结束时,他博得暴风雨般的掌声.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. No tempest is capable of shattering his firm determination.
