Teetotal

[Lennon]

I don't drink, therefore I'm teetotal. I was wondering where this word came from. Any ideas?

[xyzzy@bok]

I guess the coiner had a stutter, or an eye for emphasis; it means t-total abstinence from alcohol; http://www.merriamwebster.com/wftw/00aug/082800.ht
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[Hippy]

I'm not sure where I heard this, but the explanation given to me in my youth was that the campaigners for moral rectitude and abstinance from alcohol urged their unfortunate fellows to confine their beverages to the trusty British cuppa!

Therefore, they wanted us to drink only tea; hence tea-total.

Well, there it is, and now I've written it down is looks ridiculous.

[Lennon]

Not ridiculous at all Hippy - thanks for your post. Problem is, is that I don't drink tea either :) But after reading the info on the link xyzzy gave me, I'm never gona refer to myself as t-total as it just ain't me. I'm not against drink at all or anyone who does, I just hate the taste of alcohol. A lot of you will probably now think I'm weird - my boyfriend does at times, hehehe :)

[rinkytink]

I always thought that it came from the word Tea-Total or Tea-totaller. This was a person who worked at a tea leaf plantation in days of old. They were responsible for grading and pricing the tea for quality and flavour - by tasting it. This was a very critical job and the person responsible was not allowed to drink alcohol for fear of it affecting their judgement/taste. Hence someone who does not drink alcohol became known as teatotal or teetotal.

[FredPuli]

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the explanation that the word was first used by a working man, Richard Turner of Preston, in a speech in 1833. He was advocating abstention from all alcohol not merely from spirituous liquor. They say the word was made by the reduplication or extension of 'total' and so is not a reference to tea.This was done for emphasis. An example is the first meaning of 'teetotally', which is 'entirely, wholly '( in dialect and in the US) e.g 'I'll be teetotally damned if that ain't the limit !' This dates from the early C19 . It's quite likely that that came first and Mr Turner made the adjective from it; it would fit his message, that abstinence from liquor was not true abstinence, total abstinence. You had to be was being completely, wholly, 'teetotally' abstinent (not just from liquor but from beer too).