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Saturday, February 4, 2023

Meat is to a Vegan as Alcohol is to a _________???

I've been trying to fill in this blank: Vegan is to meat as _________ is to alcohol. The term vegan describes what you are rather than what you are not. You don't say non-meater or non-eater. You say vegan. So I didn't want to fill in that blank with the terms non-drinker or alcohol-free because that's the same as saying non-meater, non-eater or meat-free. I wanted an equivalent to vegan.

There is of course the word teetotaler but to me that's just dumb sounding. So that word wasn't going to do it. I thought I was going to have to invent something, but then I came across the word nephalist.

The Collins dictionary defines a nephalist as a person who does not drink alcohol. Perfect! It also indicates that the word is obsolete. Also perfect! That just means I get to bring it back into use. "Tanner Llewellyn, a self-described nephalist...". That has a nice ring to it.

Nephalist sounds mysterious and alluring, almost occult. Makes me think of "necromancer" or "alchemist". I also noticed the letters "ph" in there. It more than satisfactorily fills in the blank: Meat is to a vegan as alcohol is to a nephalist.

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