teetotalism (tetotalizm)

[ After a period distinguished by hard drinking and hard eating has come a period of comparative sobriety, which, in teetotalism and vegetarianism, exhibits extreme forms of its protest against the riotous living of the past. H. Spencer, Education, p. 225. teetotally (te'to'tal-i), adv. Totally; entirely: used emphatically. [Colloq.] Dinner was an ugly little parenthesis between two still uglier clauses of a teetotally ugly sentence. De Quincey, Dinner, Real and Reputed. In Sir James Spence's "Tour of Ireland," published in 1829, he speaks of the word teetotally as an adverb in every-day use by the working cla es. Edwards, Words, Facts, and Phrases, p. 561. tee-totum (tē tō'tum), n. [Also te - totum ; i. e., T- totum , totum represented by T , from the T marked upon it.] 1. A small four-sided toy of the top kind, used by children in a very old game of chance. Formerly the four sides exhibited respectively the letters A, T, N, D. The toy is set spinning, and and lo es are determined according to turns up when the tee-totum has ceased whirling: thus, A (Latin aufer, take away) indicates that the player who has last spun is entitled to take one from the stakes; D ( depone, put down), a forfeiture or laying down of a stake; N ( nihil, nothing), neither lo nor gain; T ( totum, the whole) wins the whole of the stakes. In the modern tee-totum the D is commonly changed to P, and the reading also changed into English: thus, T (take up), P (put down), A (all), N (none). The usage of the te - totum may be considered as a kind of petty gambling, it being marked with a certain number of letters; and part of the stake is taken up, or an additional part put down, according as those letters lie upper Strutt , Sports and Pastimes, p. 492. most. 2. A similar toy used for spinning in the same manner, but circular or having an indefinite number of sides, and without the marks above described: used as a plaything or in different games by children.