Let's get this straight, and I'll put it simply: Nauseous refers to causing nausea. Nauseated, on the other hand, is what most people mean when they say they are "nauseous."
So, contrary to popular speech, the following sentences are correct:
- "I shouldn't have eaten that questionable eclair. Now I feel nauseated."
- "That nauseous movie had way too many disgusting 'special' effects. We shouldn't have watched it."
Warning: DO NOT say to your sick friends when they say they are nauseous, "Um, nauseated." (Imagine this uttered with a slightly nasal, super annoying voice, from the back seat of a car on a lovely spring day in Berkeley -- sorry D!!) I didn't get punched in the face like I deserved, but you might.
Confession: I have faked it with this one. What I mean is, I've purposely said "I'm nauseous" instead of "I'm nauseated" so as not to sound, I don't know, weird or something. Tell me I'm not the only one who's done this.
***This is my amendment:***
Secure (and, honestly, superior) in the point I was about to make, I looked up nauseous on Dictionary.com and was dismayed to find this:
The two literal senses of nauseous, “causing nausea” ( a nauseous smell ) and “affected with nausea” ( to feel nauseous ), appear in English at almost the same time in the early 17th century, and both senses are in standard use at the present time. Nauseous is more common than nauseated in the sense “affected with nausea,” despite recent objections by those who imagine the sense to be new.
"Despite recent objections by those who imagine the sense to be new??" OUCH.
Well... next I turned to Strunk and White, my old pals. I can always count on them. Here's what they had to say in their chapter "Misused Words and Epxressions":
Nauseous. Nauseated. The first means "sickening to comtemplate"; the second means "sick at the stomach." Do not, therefore, say, "I feel nauseous," unless you are sure you have that effect on others.
Woohoo Strunk and White and vindication!!!
To speak correctly, or acceptably? The line can be fuzzy, but if we don't take a stand somewhere, where will it stop? Oh, it's nauseating. I mean, soon no one will correct even the "Me and Tony went to Europe"s because, well, that's how we talk -- and then where will we be?
But does it matter?
I like to think of myself as a grammar purist, one who rages against misuses of a word or punctuation or sentence structure becoming "acceptable." To me, that's just conceding to grammar laziness and confusing actual mistakes with "usage."
Grammarphiles, am I alone??
