One whoabstains; especially, one who abstains from something, such as the use ofalcohol ordrugs, or one who abstains forreligious reasons; one who practicesself-denial.[First attested around 1350 to 1470.][1]
1920,Sigmund Freud, chapter V, inM. D. Eder, transl.,Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners[1], New York: The James A. McCann Company:
To one of my very nervous patients, who was anabstainer, whose fancy was fixed on his mother, and who repeatedly dreamed of climbing stairs accompanied by his mother, I once remarked that moderate masturbation would be less harmful to him than enforced abstinence.
He was a totalabstainer and a nonsmoker, had no recreations except a daily hour in the gymnasium, and had taken a vow of celibacy, believing marriage and the care of a family to be incompatible with a twenty-four-hour-a-day devotion to duty.
'Never himself touches a drop of the stuff, you understand. Having been anabstainer since the age of seven or something. A clerky figure even as a child.'
