A.Word.A.Day --abstentious

A.Word.A.Day

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Mar 16, 2015

This week’s theme
Words with all the vowels

This week’s words
abstentious
arterious
placentious
aerious
duoliteral

Collage: Chris

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

A couple of weeks ago vowels had solos and this week it’s time for the chorus. Each word featured this week has all five vowels. And if you like, you can even append the suffix -ly to these words to make them have the sometime-vowel Y as well.

Not only that, we avow that each word this week will have all five vowels appearing once, and only once, and in order. Hope they wow you.

abstentious

PRONUNCIATION:

(abs-TEN-shus)

MEANING:

adjective: Self-restraining, especially in eating or drinking.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin abstinere (to hold back), from ab- (away) + tenere (to hold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which also gave us tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, pertinacious, detente, countenance, distend, extenuate, and tenable. Earliest documented use: 1839.

USAGE:

“Ballplayers ... have popped up at water polo, diving, and softball, cheering for Canadian teammates and downing a beer or two, unlike most of their abstentious fellow athletes.”
Ken MacQueen; Now or Never; Maclean’s (Toronto, Canada); Aug 30, 2004.

See more usage examples of abstentious in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison, fourth US president (16 Mar 1751-1836)

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