Did you
know?

abstemious
adjective

- not doing things that give you pleasure, especially not eating good food or drinking alcohol

- marked by restraint especially in the eating of food or drinking of alcohol

The Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

This word meaning “sparing or moderate in eating or drinking” is from around 1600, from the Latin abstemius “sober, temperate, abstaining from wine”. Etymologically it refers only to abstaining from alcoholic drink, but it was extended in Latin to temperance in living generally.

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FUN FACT

The word abstemious contains all of the vowels in their alphabetical order (a, e, i, o and u) and is thus much easier to remember!

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THE FIRST CHAMPAGNE SHOWER

In 1967, an underrated American racing driver named Dan Gurney piloted his Ford racecar to victory over the favored Ferrari at Le Mans. Presented with a magnum of Moet, the abstemious Gurney popped the cork and, at a loss over what do to with the bottle’s contents, simply sprayed the assembled fans and photographers—and entered the history books as the inventor of the champagne shower!

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SYNONYMS

- restraining one’s behaviour or appetite:

abstaining, ABSTEMIOUS, abstinent, ascetic, as sober as a judge, cold sober, eschewing, forbearing, hair-shirt, hermitic, moderate, moderating, monastic, monkish, monklike, non-excessive, non-indulgent, non-intoxicated, nunlike, off the booze, off the sauce, on the rims, on the wagon, prudent, prudential, puritanical, refraining, self-denying, self-disciplined, self-possessed, self-restrained, self-restraining, self-sacrificing, spartan, straightlaced, strait-laced, strict, stringent, teetotal, temperate, thrifty, took the pledge, within due limits, within limits

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“ABSTEMIOUS Archie was the last person I expected to see drunk at the office party.”

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40