Later, attitudes changed and wine, beer, and cider came to be seen as just as much of a problem as spirits. Therefore the temperance movement began to call for total abstinence from all alcohol-containing beverages. You could still practice moderation, and only cut out spirits, but you were encouraged to be a teetotaler. A person who abstains from alcohol might choose tea as his or her alternative beverage, but the word teetotaler has nothing to do with tea. More likely, the “tee” that begins the word teetotal is a reduplication of the letter “t” that begins total, emphasizing that one has pledged total abstinence.
The fellowship group for reformed alcoholics was founded in 1840 in Baltimore, Maryland, by six men seeking to help one another and others to maintain their sobriety. They recruited other people in their community, even non-alcoholics, and held regular meetings in which they shared their experiences with drinking and sobriety. Over time, the Washingtonians attracted as many as 600,000 members, with chapters throughout the United States. Notably, they welcomed many groups that other temperance societies excluded, including Roman Catholics and Black Americans. Women formed their own Washingtonian chapters, Martha Washington societies, and called themselves “Marthas.” By the late 1840s, most Washingtonian chapters had stopped meeting owing to declining membership. But that still doesn’t mean that the term was not used in England and that it was not already a known word.
Stephen Morley was the editor of the “Mowbray Phoenix,” a teetotaler, a vegetarian, a believer in moral force. In Dublin, the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart (Pioneers) was founded in 1898 by another priest, James Cullen. My poor wife runs teetotal salons in Chelsea on the strength of my name. The teetotal attitude of mind and the quarrels it aroused very properly disgusted Kingsley.
Turner may have used the word teetotal often, helping it to become more widespread, or it may have already been in use by the temperance movement, and Turner helped to cement it. Instead, Turner was induced to sign the pledge and then later became a well-known temperance advocate and speaker, who probably made many impassioned speeches. It is sometimes claimed that he put the “tee” at the beginning for the general reason described above, as emphasis. Still another claim is that Turner didn’t invent the word, but that it was an archaic word from the Lancashire dialect. Uniformed members of the Salvation Army (“soldiers” and “officers”) make a promise on joining the movement to observe lifelong abstinence from alcohol.
- Stephen Morley was the editor of the “Mowbray Phoenix,” a teetotaler, a vegetarian, a believer in moral force.
- You could still practice moderation, and only cut out spirits, but you were encouraged to be a teetotaler.
- Teetotalism, the practice or promotion of total abstinence from alcoholic drinks.
- A friend of his had been dining with a man who was both a teetotaler and a non-smoker.
- It became popular as part of the temperance movement in the early 19th century in Great Britain and North America.
In other words, someone, or more than one person, may have referred to them as teetotalers, using a known word, and only later was it supposed that this came about because of the “T” written on the pledge rolls. Whether this is true, or whether the word came about alternative to xanax independently at around the same time in Both England and U.S., the evidence cannot show. In other words, temperance began as a movement calling for abstinence from hard liquors like whiskey, rum, gin, etc. Wine, beer, and cider were often accepted and even recommended as a good substitute for hard spirits.
It’s a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
From the early days of the mass temperance movement, total abstinence from alcohol was promoted by some advocates, such as Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher, who published Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance in 1827. By 1836, when the American national temperance convention formally endorsed total abstinence, many temperance societies had switched from promoting moderation to advocating for abstinence. By this time, membership in temperance societies had reached about 1.5 million in the United States. It was also estimated that about a quarter of a million individuals were practicing total abstinence.
Examples of teetotaler in a Sentence
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘teetotaler.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. According to Jewell, “By constantly explaining the T was for Total, we were directly called the T-totalers, and this was the origin of the word five years before it was coined in England.” CTC does concede that the term may have been popularized in England, though. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘teetotal.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Word History and Origins
From there, the term came to be used more generally, for anyone who voluntarily committed to abstinence, or simply for a nondrinker. They listened to some foolish women’s cackle—teetotal cant, I call it—and refused me anything. A friend of his had been dining with a man who was both a teetotaler and a non-smoker.
Another quite silly, origin claim is that the “tee” started as “tea” and referred to drinking tea (or other beverages) instead of alcohol. More likely, teetotal was simply a misspelling of teetotal, which caused people to believe that it had something to do with tea. Members of temperance organizations sang songs, organized marches to shut down saloons or pass prohibition laws, circulated pamphlets about the cause, and gave speeches on the moral problems caused by drinking. Teetotalism was embraced by some religious groups and moral reformers as the answer to the problems of poverty, unemployment or work absenteeism, declining church attendance, crime, and domestic violence. It was encouraged among the working class, whereas moderation was more readily accepted among the upper classes, who could afford wine. So, a teetotaler wasn’t someone who “doesn’t drink” as much as it is someone who “doesn’t drink distilled spirits, or wine, or beer, or anything else.” You could still “practice temperance without being a teetotaler.
Instead, the word “teetotal” or “tee-total” appears in a great many publications from 1830 onward. Indeed, as early as 1830, and probably before, temperance societies were known as “teetotal societies.” What’s more, the word appears in American printed publications almost as often as British publications and also appears in Irish ones. This is not the speech in which Turner is said to have coined the term. The fact Turner mentions signing the “teetotal pledge” rather than the “total pledge” suggests that it was a more or less accepted way of describing the pledge, and using the word may not support the idea that he had coined the word by an accidental stutter. Although the temperance movement died out in the United States in the alcohol intolerance after covid early 20th century with the failure of Prohibition, alcohol abstinence was the foundation for a new movement focused on recovery from addiction.
There are several common origin stories, which I will report here along with some speculation as to the credibility to each one. I make no claims to knowing the exact origin of the word, and one or more of these stories may have some truth in them. The term was in use as early as 1836 when an explanation of it as meaning “total abstainer” appeared in print.
Can you solve 4 words at once?
This dates back to the early years of the organisation, and the missionary work among alcoholics. The idea that Turner made an impassioned speech on total abstinence after wandering into a meeting one day intermediate familial subtype seems to be an invention. “We agree to abstain from all liquors of an intoxicating quality whether ale, porter, wine or ardent spirits, except as medicine.” I was certainly not under the influence of strong drink, for I was then, as I have been for forty-nine years, a teetotaler.
Also, some Hindu and Buddhist sects, and some Mennonite and Pentecostal groups. Methodists in English and American history often taught abstinence but rarely do that currently. In the Victorian era, many in both the Evangelical and Unitarian movements taught at least restraint, if not temperance and teetotalling. This is a list of notable figures who practiced teetotalism and were public advocates for temperance, teetotalism, or both. To be included in this list, individuals must be well-known for their abstention from alcohol, their advocacy efforts, or both.Individuals whose abstention from alcohol is not a defining characteristic or feature of their notability are intentionally excluded. Instead, it seems more likely that it was an old term of a type known as a “republicate.” Republication means to repeat sounds in a word, or similar sounds, often as a means to emphasize them.
However, Dr. F. R. Lees says that Turner did not coin the term, but only applied it. Lees is a source of the “archaic usage” claim and says that Turner was using a term that had been in use in Ireland and Lancashire for a hundred years, and which could be found in the literature of England long before Turner used it. That teetotal was a long-established Lancashire term was backed up by other contemporaries. Although “to teetotal” (t total, t-total) simply means “to never drink,” it meant something more specific when it first came to be used.