Tepid means only slightly warm, or lacking enthusiasm. Tepid water, a tepid response, tepid applause.
Of water it is the temperature nobody wants — too cool for a bath and too warm for a drink. Of a response it is more damning than a bad one, because indifference is harder to argue with than dislike. Note that the Latin tepidus simply means lukewarm.
1adjectivetepidOnly slightly warm.
“The hotel shower was only tepid, so I washed as quickly as I could.”
2adjectivelackingLacking enthusiasm.
“The audience gave only tepid applause at the end of the long speech.”
tepid is a quality of mildness.
Latin tepidus means lukewarm, from tepere, to be warm. Tepefy and tepidarium come from the same warmth.
Proto-Indo-European
*tep-
Latin
tepidus
English, today
tepid
Borrowed from Latin tepidus. Latin tepidus. Cognate with Sanskrit तप्, Proto-Slavic teplъ.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire