The relation between “temporal” and “time”

Question

The word "temporal" is the XXX form of the word "time". What is XXX? I can't find the answer anywhere, I don't even know where to look.

Answer 1

Where to look: temporal in ODO

The word temporal is an adjectival form of the word time.

adjective
2 relating to time

This is supported by the use of temporal in the entry for time:

Old English tīma, of Germanic origin; related to tide, which it superseded in temporal senses.

In English, any noun can theoretically be made attributive [made into what is effectively an adjective], and that quote could say "which it superseded in time senses," but there is a subtle difference.

One might talk of a time stamp indicating a particular time (for example when a photograph was taken), but to call that a temporal stamp would be unusual. Temporal indicates a relationship to time — it's almost a meta-adjective because it indicates the presence of that relationship.

This relationship is necessary because time (as in "the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole"¹ rather than a particular point on that continuum) is an abstract noun, so the adjectival form indicates the abstract nature of what it's describing.

¹ time, ibid.

Answer 2

Temporal is the adjectival form of time.

Temporal can be used in place of the participled adjective time-based.

There is a time-based misalignment in the two events received by event-bus.

is akin to

There is a temporal misalignment in the two events received by event-bus.

However, you could also use the adjunct form as the adjective. An adjunct noun adjective is using a noun as an adjective:

• cow milk
• beef steak
• chicken rice
• pepperoni pizza
• time shift

Hence,

There is a time misalignment in the two events received by event-bus.

Let's analyse the word value thro its various adjectival forms:

1. She is a value customer.
   i.e., She is a value-category customer.
2. She is a valued customer.
   i.e., She is customer on whom we actively place value.
3. She is a valuable customer.
   i.e., She is a customer whose value to us may not be due to our active participation.

Let's analyse time in its various adjectival forms:

1. She is a time customer. We have various categories of products. She is a time-category customer. The product she buys is time.
2. She is a timed customer. Her presence and activities in our e-shop is timed.
3. She is a temporal customer. We have various categories of customers. We have product-based customers. We have impression-based customers. She is a time-based customer. She is a temporal customer. We entice her to spend not by the products she buys or the impression of products she sees, but by the temporal attachment she has to items and events in our e-shop.

Captain Picard is unable to return to Starship Enterprise for our time ceremony, because our timed monitors indicate that his shuttle is going through a temporal storm.