abstemious

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adjective ab·ste·mi·ous \ ab-ˈstē-mē-əs \

Definition of abstemious

formal

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

an abstemious drinker

; also :reflecting such restraint

an abstemious diet

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abstemiously

adverb

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abstemiousness

noun

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Examples of abstemious in a Sentence

She is known as an abstemious eater and drinker.
being abstemious diners, they avoid restaurants with all-you-can-eat buffets

Recent Examples of abstemious from the Web

Denis, who died this week at the age of sixty-seven, was resolutely sober, abstemious, but not at all grave.

— tobias wolff, The New Yorker, "Denis Johnson’s Generosity," 28 May 2017
As a result, ladies had to be adept in carrying their gloves while enjoying non-abstemious indoor activities.

— judith martin, The Mercury News, "Miss Manners: Is woman’s rudeness OK if she says ‘I’m rude’?," 19 Mar. 2017
The White House started serving liquor again after the abstemious Carter years.

— lou cannon, New York Times, "Nancy Reagan, an Influential and Protective First Lady, Dies at 94," 6 Mar. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abstemious.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Abstemious and "abstain" look alike, and both have meanings involving self-restraint or self-denial. So they must both come from the same root, right? Yes and no. Both get their start from the Latin prefix abs-, meaning "from" or "away," but "abstain" traces to "abs-" plus the Latin verb tenēre (meaning "to hold"), while "abstemious" gets its "-temious" from a suffix akin to the Latin noun temetum, meaning "intoxicating drink."

Origin and Etymology of abstemious

borrowed from Latin abstēmius "refraining from wine, careful with one's means," from abs- (variant of ab- ab- before c- and t-) + -tēmius, from a base tēm- "intoxicating" (also in tēmētum "intoxicating beverage," tēmulentus "drunken"); if going back to an Indo-European root *temH-, akin to Sanskrit tāmyati "(he/she) is stunned, loses consciousness, is exhausted," tamayati "(he/she) chokes (someone)," Armenian t^cmrim "(he/she) is stunned" (perhaps going back to *tēēmiro-)

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First Known Use: 1609

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