Pronounced: PIH-puhn, noun
Notes: There are two meanings that don’t seem to be related – do you know either?
Yesterday’s word
The word abstentious means “self-retraining, especially in eating or drinking”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
Our word looks like “abstinence”, so readers may have been able to correctly guess the meaning. However, did you notice that this word has all five vowels, and in order? In addition, you can add -ly and have the sometime vowel ‘y’ as well. Our word came from the Latin word abstinere (to hold back), which is made up of ab- (away) and tenere (to hold).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 