Could anyone please let me know, what do we usually call an individual who never drinks alcohol?
It can be either for health issue, or health care or even some personal barriers like religious beliefs.
PS. I am familiar with the word "teetotalism" which is the practice of total personal abstinence from alcoholic beverages. Also, the notion of "teetotaler" who is a person who practices teetotalism.
However, these words sound a little stilted to me.
That said, I need a word which is used in everyday speech by ordinary people, or rather it is easily understood by them.
Once, I heard a nonnative used the word "sober" in this sense, but as far as I am concerned, this word is used either for:
1) someone who is not affected by alcohol after drinking it; in other words, the person drank alcohol and after a while when they sober up, they are not drunk anymore.
2) Also, we can simply call someone who has not had alcohol for a while and as they say, they have been on the wagon.
Best Answer
Teetotaller is the noun which is used for such a person, i.e., a person who NEVER drinks alcohol.
Sober is an adjective which means not drunk. It doesn't mean never drunk - it says nothing about drinking habits per se, just that whoever is described as sober is not currently drunk, or appears not to be drunk.
You say that teetotaller sounds stilted, but that isn't the perception of native speakers. It's a fairly common informal word, and probably most native English speakers will know it.