clement

From Old French, from Latin clēmēns.[1]

clement (comparative more clement, superlative most clement)

1. Lenient or merciful; charitable.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance)​, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iv], page 393, column 2:

     I know you are more clement than vilde^{[sic, meaning vile]} men, / Who of their broken Debtors take a third, / A ſixt, a tenth, letting them thriue againe / On their abatement; […]

   • a 1891, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, published 1924, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 18,

     Your clement sentence they would account pusillanimous.

2. Mild (said of weather and similar circumstances).
   • 1984, Edna O'Brien, "The Bachelor" in A Fanatic Heart, New York: Plume, p. 66,

     The weather is clement, though there was a downpour yesterday and I was obliged to take precautions.

   • 1992, A. B. Yehoshua, Mr. Mani, translated by Hillel Halkin, New York: Doubleday, pp. 314-5,

     The earth was still dry and the air was perfectly clement.

• inclement

• clemency