These words refer to an avoidance of pleasurable excesses. Temperance , correctly used, refers to a wise moderation of indulgence in such pleasures, but as commonly used it suggests a complete rejection, especially of alcohol: a temperance that extended to declining drinks until four in the afternoon; the question of temperance that inflamed women against the evils of that devil, whisky. Self-denial and sobriety are, of themselves, vague as to the extent to which avoidance may or should go. Self-denial is, of course, more general than sobriety but is firmer in tone than temperance in its most general sense, suggesting specifically an attitude of refusing to five in to the demands of one’s own body: a Spartan self-denial that made young men impervious to extremes of heat and cold, to hunger and to the threat of death; a Victorian code of morals that stressed prudish self-denial . Sobriety , by contrast, usually applies in this context strictly to non-intoxication by alcohol. A person, of course, may be intoxicated one day and in a state of sobriety the next. More broadly, sobriety may suggest a soberness or solemnity of mien: the grim sobriety in the faces of the jury.

Abstinence and continence are much clearer than self-denial and sobriety as to the extent of denial involved; they emphasize a total avoidance of sensation. In this they are at odds with the more general implications of temperance . Abstinence , in context, may refer to an avoidance of alcohol or sexual satisfaction or any specific named: a complete abstinence from salty or spicy foods. Continence usually is taken to mean an avoidance of sexual intercourse in particular, but at its most general it can suggest a range of possibility similar to self-denial : maintaining a certain continence to extra-curricular activities, better to concentrate on his studies.

A distinctively Australian term, whose origin is obscure but which the late John Norton claimed to have invented, is wowserism , most often found in the noun form, wowser . Wowserism , like abstinence , means the complete rejection of strong drink, but, unlike abstinence , carries with it all the most unpleasant connotations of narrowness, rejection of physical pleasures and even objections to other seeking enjoyment in such things as alcohol according to their own consciences: I’ve been a teetotaller all my life but no one can accuse me of wowserism .