abstain
/əbˈsteɪn/verb
to deliberately refrain from something
From Latin abs- (away from) + Latin teneō (to hold).
Lineage
abs-
teneō
The story
Picture a Roman deliberately keeping his hand away from a tempting dish: that is the image packed into Latin abstinēre, “to hold away.” Its first half, ab-, means “away,” while teneō means “I hold,” from the ancient stretching root *ten-. The same holding family gives English tenable, tenacious, tenure, and even tenet—the thing you “hold” as a belief. French softened and reshaped the Latin into astenir and abstiner, and Middle English tried forms such as absteynen before English settled on abstain around 1380. In 1796, the word acquired its especially recognizable political sense: refusing to vote. Abstaining is therefore not simply doing nothing; it is holding yourself away—from the bottle, the ballot, or whatever temptation is nearest.
Modern usage
An informal source uses abstain for sexual conduct, including refraining from sexual activity and a purported withdrawal practice.
- Heard in
- informal slang