Be Wrong If You Want To; You're Not Making Me Sick!

In a post last month I mentioned the etymology of the word brook as a verb, and also promised “More on that next month.” Well, next month has arrived, so let’s fulfill the promise.

Brook is most commonly used as a noun, but can be used as a verb, meaning to tolerate, endure, or suffer. As mentioned before, it came from the Old English brucan, which was the word used in Old English for the word use. It also meant possess, enjoy, eat; and cohabit with. So it was a versatile word. (Perhaps too much so.) As brucan in reference to eating developed the meaning of “able to digest,” it developed the meaning of tolerate, which it retains today in a broad sense in the word brook. Other meanings of brucan have not followed brook.

Brook as a noun refers to a small freshwater stream. (While my dictionary provided that information, I couldn’t find a word that refers to a small saltwater stream. Anyone know?) This meaning of the word brook did came from Old English but not from brucan. It came from their word for a flowing stream, broc.  In parts of England (Sussex and Kent) it means “water meadow” and in its plural form “low, marshy ground.”

While we’re catching up, there is another reference I needed to explore. For those of you who enjoy the sitcom Big Bang Theory, you may remember the episode where Leonard says he’s nauseous and Sheldon responds by saying Leonard should not have used the word nauseous, because he was actually nauseated. Which made me wonder “What’s the difference?”

My dictionary has as the definition of nauseous “affected with nausea, nauseated.” While that would make it appear the two are synonymous the section listing synonyms says “see usage note.” So here is what dictionary.com says:

The two literal senses of nauseous, “causing nausea” (a nauseous smell) and “affected with nausea” (to feel nauseous), appeared in English at almost the same time in the early 17^th century, and both senses are in standard use at the present time. Nauseous is more common than nauseated in the sense “affected with nausea,” either literally or figuratively, nauseating has become more common than nauseous: a nauseating smell.

My dictionary does make one firm distinction: nauseous is an adjective, nauseated is the past tense of the verb nauseate.

Let’s see if the etymology sheds any light. Nausea came into English in the early 15^th century from the Latin word for seasickness (nausea), which came from the Ionic Greek word for seasickness, nausia. In Attic Greek it was spelled nautia, and came from the Greek word for ship, naus, from which we get the word naval. (Naval and navel, now there’s another pair. See this post for more.) Interestingly (to me) the word nausea never has been restricted to seasickness in its English usage.

Continuing our hunt: around 1600 the adjective form of nausea, nauseous, came into being. About 30 years later the verb nauseate appeared and by the 1650s came to have the added meaning of creating nausea or causing loathing. Etymonline.com takes it a bit further, explaining that nauseous is used to describe something that causes nausea or squeamishness, while nauseated refers to feeling nausea.

Then etymonline adds the clarifying statement “Careful writers use nauseated for “sick at the stomach” and use nauseous for “sickening to contemplate.” That only adds confusion.

In my continuing search for clarification I found this blog post, which cites a statistic that 72% of the panelists for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4^th Edition, 2000) say that the use of nauseous to mean “feeling sick” is wrong, that nauseous should be used only to that which “causes nausea,” not the feeling of nausea personally. That helps to clarify.

If you wish to make the distinction, whether you wish to be pedantic or simply accurate, use nauseous when describing something that causes nausea, and nauseated when you feel nausea yourself. But realize that most English speakers don’t understand the difference, even those who make the distinction in their usage.

And while something noxious may cause nausea, there’s no harm in using nauseated and nauseous interchangeably. Be wrong if you want to.