Talk:nauseous

The differentiation between nauseous and nauseating has become blurred without good result. The definitions given here clarify these terms and make meaningful distinction between them. For example, refer to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, forth edition, for the blurred meanings and their rationale. The reason for defining these words given here is to be more clear. Nausea and the triggers causing it (nauseating agents) are medical entities, well described in the medical literature. Nauseous should be left for persons who engender disgust, revulsion, and loathing. A nauseous person does not cause nausea, this person causes loathing, disgust and revulsion. So it does not mean you feel like you have to TOSS YOUR COOKIES!

Maybe not in BrE, but in AmE, it does mean that you feel you are about to toss your lunch. —Stephen 17:58, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Oh no, that usage is totally standard in British English as well, and is attested, like the other meaning, as far back as the 17th century. You might like to refer to Merriam Webster and Random House's notes on this topic. This appears to be one of those totally spurious bits of pedantry with no real basis in historical, let alone current usage. --Oolong 11:33, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

For that reason, I have edited the main page. The usage of "nauseous" to mean "afflicted with nausea" is much more common than "causing nausea" and well-attested even in formal literature. Websters and Random House both indicate this is standard usage, and Websters' usage note explicitly states that people claiming otherwise are incorrect. 76.190.157.141 01:55, 4 December 2009 (UTC)