Word of the DaySaturday, November 20, 1999
extempore
\ik-STEM-puh-ree\ , adverb:1.
Without premeditation or preparation; on the spur of the moment.
1.
Done or performed extempore.
Quotes:
Kelso had already delivered his short paper, on Stalin and the archives, at the end of the previous day: delivered it in his trademark style--without notes, with one hand in his pocket, extempore, provocative.
-- Robert Harris, Archangel
Ruskin's Oxford lecture series ended up as a dismaying mix of extempore ramblings and calculated farce.
-- Valentine Cunningham, "A Victorian Renaissance Man", New York Times, May 14, 2000
Origin:
Extempore is from the Latin phrase ex tempore, "out of the time," therefore "immediately, at the very time the occasion arises."
