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Word of the Day for Sunday, April 3, 2011abstemious \ab-STEE-mee-uhs\, adjective: 1. Sparing in eating and drinking; temperate; abstinent. They were healthy and abstemious; their chief pleasure was reading and Oliver was a life member of the London Library. For a man who trafficked in excess, he was surprisingly abstemious. When the 1796 outbreak of yellow fever turned into an epidemic, the frightened citizens followed each preventive vogue: herb tea, cold baths, cream of tartar, vinegar, camphor and abstemious diets. Abstemious comes from Latin abstemius, from ab-, abs-, "away from" + the root of temetum, "intoxicating drink." | |||||||||
 Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom?Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges | |||||||||
  Why is April called "April?" The answer is a mystery — no fooling!Mark Twain once wrote: "This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four." Twain is referring to the first day of April or, as it has come to be known as, April Fool's Day. While the first day of the fourth month of the... | |||||||||
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