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abstain (verb):

1: to choose not to do or have something : to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice
2:: to choose not to vote

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : If you abstain, you’re consciously, and usually with effort, choosing to hold back from doing something that you would like to do. Abstain traces back through Middle English and Anglo-French to the Latin verb abstinere, which combines the prefix ab- (“from, away, off”) with tenere, a Latin verb meaning “to hold.” (Spanish speakers might recognize tenere’s influence in the Spanish verb tener, meaning “to have, hold, or take.”) Tenere has many offspring in English; other descendants include contain, detain, maintain, obtain, pertain, retain, and sustain, as well as some words that don’t end in -tain, such as tenant and tenacious. Abstain, like many of its cousins, has been used by English speakers since at least the 14th century.

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