What Angus has to say about abstemious gnome (5)
I believe the answer is:
motto
'gnome' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'what angus has to say about abstemious' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'to' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'mot' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for motto that I've seen before include "statement of belief" , "device" , "Words often found on coat of arms" , "Short sentence adopted as rule of conduct" , "Christmas cracker item" .)