If you really want to be correct, you will use nauseated, not nauseous, when describing the state of being afflicted with nausea. Nauseous, on the other hand, is really supposed to be used to describe something or someone that causes nausea.
We nurses can do a lot to turn around the deplorable trend amongst the common populace to use these words incorrectly. We deal with nauseated people on a daily basis. We can gently educate the public by being role models for proper usage!
(nauseous-correct usage): The smell of rotten eggs is nauseous.
(nauseated-correct usage): The smell of rotten eggs makes me nauseated.
I'm all for linguistic proselytizing, but the established definition of "nauseous" includes both affected with nausea as well as to cause nausea. This is the definition used by Oxford, American Heritage, and Webster's dictionaries. There are certainly some linguists who offer dissenting opinions, but it's not incorrect to use either meaning if you consider the major dictionaries to be how we define correct word meanings.
You could also argue that a paradox exists here that makes it impossible to use the word incorrectly. If you believe strongly that the word nauseous can only be used to refer to something that causes nausea and someone uses "nauseous" to convey that they feel nauseated, then that to some degree will probably make you feel nauseated, which means the person is correct in referring to themselves as nauseous regardless of how you define the word.
This made me laugh aloud! (Out loud? Discuss. ). Love it!
It's not at all incorrect, yet it grates on my nerves for some reason when people say "I've got to.." Why not just say "I have to" instead of throwing an extra word and a contraction in there!
It may be spelled correctly but there are two distinct definitions.
Even though . . folks in Britain say "orientated" and mean "oriented";)
Just to check I looked this up online. I came across an English language forum where someone asked "What's the difference between the words oriented and orientated"?
The reply, which I thought was cute:
"Two letters and an ocean".
It seems the English use orientated, and Americans use oriented. That said, orientated does get on my nerves.
Grammar police member here. One that makes my teeth grind -
If a noun ends in the letter 'S', in order to show possession, the apostrophe only is used as in "Louis' book ...". NOT APOSTROPHE 'S'. Louis's book is a NO-NO.
An exception is the word 'it'. In order to show possession, the word is 'its'. No apostrophe. The word, 'it's' , is a contraction shortening to mean 'it is'. The apostrophe is used here.
One of the funnier words I've seen a nurse misuse is "growing" instead of "groin". I told her the patient had a groin incision, when I looked at her paper, she had written "growing incision". This happened a time or two before I finally corrected her.
To more current issues, has anyone been seeing people use the word "eboli" instead of ebola?
oh, that's awful......and those random signs in grocery stores....."Potato's $1.99" "Apple's 2/$1.00" "Banana's 49 cents/pound " WHY ??
AZirish
53 Posts
This made me laugh aloud! (Out loud? Discuss. ). Love it!