Abstemious means not self-indulgent, especially when eating and drinking.
Abstinent means not doing or having something, often referring to sex or alcohol. (i.e, self-restraint or self-denial).
He hopes that an abstemious lifestyle will improve his health and wellbeing.
I have abstained from drinking alcohol for over ten years.
These words are both adjectives and both begin with the Latin prefix ab-, telling us that they have “away (from)” in their meaning—and these words indeed have similar meanings.
Looking at abstemious, we might be reminded that other words ending in -ious refer to personality traits, such as contentious (argumentative), industrious (hard-working), and mendacious (dishonest). Indeed, abstemious refers to the personality trait of staying away from food and drink—not completely, just relatively. The stem-part of abstemious comes from a Latin root meaning “strong drink.” An abstemious person habitually eats and drinks much less than we consider normal:
Yogis are famously abstemious.
The -ent in abstinent is another typical adjective ending in English (as well as a noun ending) that often refers to states of being, such as absent and present. The -tin- in abstinent comes from the root -ten- meaning “hold,” such as in the words extend and detention. Again, Abstinent means “holding away from” and describes a person who holds themselves back completely from something—typically sex or alcohol, but the word can be used to refer to abstaining from anything that a person might feel drawn to do.
So, abstinent and abstemious can both mean “staying away from food and alcohol;” however, only abstinent means “staying away completely” and only abstinent can apply to things other than food and alcohol, such as sex, or gambling.
More Examples of Abstemious in a Sentence
- He was always abstemious in his diet.
- Jane's abstemious diet had some unforeseen health consequences.
- Tammy's new abstemious lifestyle helped her lose weight.
- The benefits of the abstemious lifestyle are incredible.
- Laura was an abstemious eater—she would often eat things like fruits and vegetables.
- James tried really hard to be an abstemious eater, but he often ate unhealthy foods.
- Being an abstemious eater didn't seem to help him much because he still looked and felt overweight.
- The show's producer was abstemious in their use of water during filming.
- Mr. Sanders is an abstemious man, who avoids many pleasures in his life.
- My father was not the most abstemious person I knew, but he still did his best to avoid unhealthy foods.
- The abstemious man did not drink, smoke, or overeat for the sake of pleasure.
- The surly old man was abstemious, and he did not like to share his food with any of the other passengers.
- Abstemious people are typically less susceptible to diseases.
- The young man was abstemious, which seemed out of place for someone his age.
More Examples of Absinent in a Sentence
- I abstained from eating sweets for the entire month of September.
- The athlete abstained from drinking any alcohol for 6 months.
- He abstains from cigarettes.
- His lack of stamina had nothing to do with alcohol. It had to do with his abstinence from sleep.
- Today, Ms. Smith abstained from eating meat.
- While abstaining from caffeine, Mr. Jones drank a blueberry iced tea, which had less than 50 milligrams of caffeine.
- When abstaining from food, Ms. Smith is able to save money for more important needs.
- He would like to abstain from gambling, but he needs help.
- The abstinent lifestyle is one that helps control blood pressure and prevents heart disease.
- Some abstinent people do drink occasionally or even a bit too much—as John demostrated last night at the party.
- After a long period of being abstinent, she has started to drink again.
- She had been abstinent from alcohol for 2 years when she started drinking again this year.
- My sister drank for a few years and then went to rehab and became abstinent for 10 years—before drinking again.
- The reason why I abstain from eating meat is because it's against my religious beliefs.