I almost never drink alcohol and used to consider myself a teetotaler, though I never actually used the term because it seemed somewhat Victorian. But I had never thought about how the word originated and this article clued me in.
It dates back to the 1820s and 1830s when alcohol consumption in the United States dramatically increased. Back then, drinking was an all-or-nothing habit, explains Jon Grinspan, curator of political history at the National Museum of American History. The “tee” in “teetotaler” likely refers to temperance activists who were totally opposed to alcohol with “a capital T” (or “tee”). Similar to the way people used the label of capital-R Republicans or W-Whigs, being a T-Totaler was a distinct identity. It was only after Prohibition ended that drinking in moderation became more popular and the label fell out of fashion.
Since I am not totally opposed to alcohol and have on occasion consumed small amounts of wine and beer, it looks like technically I am not a teetotaler.
On social occasions when I ask for a non-alcoholic drink, my hosts often think I must have religious objections to alcohol, which I find amusing. My lack of interest in alcohol is mainly because I do not like the taste. Also, Sri Lanka used to have a lot of heavy drinkers and growing up I have seen too many people drink too much at parties and then say and do things they later regretted, or at least should have regretted. I vowed never to let that happen to me so have never drunk more than a token amount since. On the one occasion in my twenties where I drank a little more than usual at a party, I did not enjoy the sensation that I was slowly losing control of my words and actions and so stopped at once. Fortunately, my group of friends were also not heavy drinkers, so I did not face much peer pressure to do so.
The Online Etymology Dictionary dates teetotaler to 1834. As to the root teetotal:
Yep, same goes for me. If people already know that I’m an atheist, then they are just puzzled and surprised instead.
I usually drink very little, because I don’t like the taste of alcohol itself. I have found a few alcoholic beverages that I actually find tasty enough, but all of them have little alcohol in them, so actually getting drunk is hard for me.
My lack of interest in alcohol is mainly because I do not like the taste.
I don’t like beer. One of my friends said “Yeah, I didn’t like beer to start with either, but after my first hundred or so I started to like it…”. Great argument that.
On the one occasion in my twenties where I drank a little more than usual at a party, I did not enjoy the sensation that I was slowly losing control of my words and actions and so stopped at once.
Sounds similar to my experience with marijuana. I’ve tried it three times in my life. The first two times, it had no effect on me at all that I could notice, and I wondered whether it was merely an emperor’s new clothes thing. The third time I got stoned. It was a different experience, but I didn’t find the loss of control pleasurable and have felt no need to ever repeat it.
Apropos of nothing much, different beers can taste vastly different — a Chimay has little in common with an Pilsner Urquell, which despite also being made in the Czech Republic, has little in common with Budvar, which has nothing whatsoever in common with its USAian rip-off Budweiser (which many beer aficionados don’t even consider a beer). And on and on; e.g., Guinness is again totally different, and different yet again is Old Peculiar. And this is without even touching on, e.g., flavoured beers such as Lambics, or specialties such as Barley Wines. (Technically, a Barley Wine is a type of strong Ale, so there is a similarity to the more common Ales; some people call Barley Wines “Old Ales” — the point here is they taste quite different to, e.g., Anchor Steam, which is a fairly rare type of Ale called a “steam beer” (for disputed reasons).)
@2: “I don’t like the taste of alcohol itself”
I doubt it, because alcohol itself hardly has any taste.
I only enjoy a small amount of alcoholic drinks. While I really like some brands of pilsener beer for instance Pabst tastes to me worse than dish water.
More or less the same with me. The few ones where I like the taste (Lychee Sake!) , I like the fruit or the plain fruit juice better.
This is the same argument I heard when people suggested that I persevere in trying out cigarettes; I never could see the logic in pushing through the pain of an unhealthy activity just so that I could do that activity.
It is also similar in logic to ‘acquired tastes’ in general. There are plenty of foods available, so I see no point in persevering with a food I initially dislike just in case I end up liking it.