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WordWealth:
abstemious
ab·ste·mi·ous
, adj
1. sparing or
moderate in eating and drinking; temperate in diet; 2.
characterized by abstinence, restricted to bare necessities: an
abstemious life; 3. sparing: an abstemious
diet. [1615–25; < L abst mius,
equiv. to abs- ABS-
+ t m-
(base of t m tum
intoxicating drink) + -ius -IOUS]
(Random
House Webster's, Unabridged).
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Levels of alcohol consumption also
varied markedly between the north west and the south and east, with
Northern Irish people "by far" the most abstemious. Almost half
of men and three-fifths of women in Northern Ireland had not had an
alcoholic drink in the week prior to the interview.
——
North-South Divide Confirmed,
BCC Business, 28 Sept, 2000.
The medium for
distribution of the drug was a simple choice. All foods were strictly
rationed, and tea was the only beverage readily available in Britain
(apart from gin and beer, which were obviously out of the question for
the abstemious bureaucrats). In addition, the quality of tea
had deteriorated due to poor supply from India, so the rather metallic
taste of the drug was unlikely to be noticed. There remained the
problem of broadcasting the hypnotic sounds. ——
Tea: A British response to Natural Disasters,
BBC Peer Review Talking with
people in suburbs across America, one finds that as a nation we feel
that the most pressing scarcity in life is not of money but of time.
Hanson's farmers have callused hands; today's suburbanites have
color-coded charts on the refrigerator indicating where each kid has
to be at each moment of the week. They live in an overcommunicated
world; they have to be ruthless editors in the war for their
attention. They are self-disciplined, too—this is surely the most
abstemious moment in American history. (The yeoman farmers hit the
moonshine, whereas caffeine, a stimulant, is the drug for our age.)
Moreover, these suburbanites still find time to coach Little League
teams, teach Sunday school, and take their kids hunting and fishing. ——
David
Brooks in
On the Playing Fields of Suburbia,
January, 2003
Further note: Abstemious comes from Latin abstemius, from ab-, abs-, "away
from" + the root of temetum, "intoxicating drink." Synonyms:
abstinent, teetotal, temperate.
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