extemporaneous

English

Etymology

From Late Latin extemporāneus, from Latin ex tempore (“impromptu”).

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /əksˌtɛmpɚˈeɪni.əs/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɛksˌtɛm.pɜː(ɹ)ˈeɪn.i.əs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪniəs

Adjective

extemporaneous (comparative more extemporaneous, superlative most extemporaneous)

1. With inadequate preparation or without advance thought; offhand.

   Synonyms: off-the-cuff, (archaic) extemporal, improvised; see also Thesaurus:impromptu

   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:

     My speeches in Great Britain were wholly extemporaneous, and I may not always have been so guarded in my expressions, as I otherwise should have been. I was ten years younger then than now, and only seven years from slavery.

   • 1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “Young Irony”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II (The Education of a Personage), page 241:

     “Who the devil is there in Ramilly County,” muttered Amory aloud, “who would deliver Verlaine in an extemporaneous tune to a soaking haystack?”

   • 2017 March 1, The Lead with Jake Tapper‎^[1], spoken by Jake Tapper, via CNN:

     The lovely words of a prepared speech, however, cannot erase extemporaneous words and deeds, thousands of them, that have run contrary to those aspirations.

Derived terms

• extemporaneously

Related terms

• extemporanea
• extemporaneousness
• extemporize

Translations

without preparation

• Bulgarian: импровизиран (bg) (improviziran)
• Catalan: extemporani (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 即興的／即兴的 (jíxìngde), 不用講稿的／不用讲稿的 (búyòngjiǎnggǎogde)

• Danish: improviseret
• Dutch: onvoorbereid (nl)
• German: unvorbereitet (de)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uforberedt

• Portuguese: extemporâneo (pt)
• Russian: импровизированный (ru) (improvizirovannyj)
• Spanish: extemporáneo (es)