Abstemious means ‘sparse use’ or ‘moderate intake of food and drink’; facetious means being ‘flippant’. Apart from their interesting meanings, the words have a unique connection between them. Both these words have all the vowels in alphabetical order. Such words are quite rare and form a very short list. Abstentious is another such word. The scientific words in the list, such as arsenious, acheilous, annelidous, fracedinous, etc., are hardly ever used in everyday language. The entire list would comprise about 20 words.
It is wise to be ‘abstemious’ when using words like ‘facetious’.
