Another pet peeve: nauseated vs nauseous

[fleur-de-lisa]

This drives me nuts!

from vocabulary.com: https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/nauseated-nauseous/

"If you're nauseated you're about to throw up, if you're nauseous, you're a toxic funk and you're going to make someone else puke. These words are used interchangeably so often that it makes word nerds feel nauseated!

Nauseated is how you feel after eating funnel cake and riding the tilt-a-whirl, when you're two months pregnant, or any other time you need a vomit bag. Here are some examples from the New York Times,

He was constantly nauseated, so much so that he lost 50 pounds.

In the place of public transport, fleets of private vans career from stop to stop with their hapless, nauseated passengers.

Nauseous, on the other hand, should be reserved to mean causing that feeling, not having it. But it's used so often now to mean "feeling sick," that dictionaries define it that way."

[LisaM]

1. Thanks! It drives me crazy, too.

This was a biggie in our family.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. This is one of mine: fewer than vs less than.

As in "We have seen less people . . . ."

[Control-Z]

8. That one drives me crazy.

I even hear it on political shows and other news programs. I can't remember the last time I heard someone get it right.

One of mine is: those ones

[SwissTony]

15. But we don't have a similar construction for "more".

If you try to get into the "6 items or fewer" line, the shop assistant may point out "Sorry, you have more than 6 items." So, why the discrepancy?

And we're not consistent with less/fewer, either. "Our son was rude to his mum, so I cut his pocket money from $10 to $5 for this week. He can make do with a bit less."

My background is mathematics. I've been on the receiving end of hundreds of lectures. I've also been on the giving end!! I have never heard a mathematician read the very simple mathematical expression

4 < 6

as anything other than "4 is less than 6" even when talking purely about integers. Ditto for programmers.

[hlthe2b]

3. according to Webster, no

According to Webster's , there's nothing wrong with saying you feel nauseous.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nauseous

quote:
Main Entry: nau·seous
Pronunciation: 'no-sh&s, 'no-zE-&s
Function: adjective
1 : causing nausea or disgust : NAUSEATING
2 : affected with nausea or disgust
- nau·seous·ly adverb
- nau·seous·ness noun

usage Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usually after a linking verb such as feel or become; figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2.

From my pov, as long as folks don't confuse "nauseous" with "noxious", I'm fine.

[fleur-de-lisa]

11. As stated in the OP . . .

Nauseous, on the other hand, should be reserved to mean causing that feeling, not having it. But it's used so often now to mean "feeling sick," that dictionaries define it that way

[hlthe2b]

12. then what is the problem?

[Sailor65x1]

4. This is not correct

And vocabulary's editorial contradicts its own correct definition of the word which, of course, matches with everyone else's.

[yallerdawg]

6. So, did jackass Comey get it right?

“It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election,” he told the senators. “But honestly, it wouldn’t change the decision.”

[underpants]

7. Yeah I'm sick of that too

[Ohiya]

9. Ad Nauseum...

[Laffy Kat]

10. Yep.

Spent years as a medical transcriptionist and it bugs me. I never say anything but it bothers me. Even physicians get it wrong. I would always correct it on reports.

[Skittles]

13. when you say you are nauseous, it is like saying you are poisonous

the correct words are nauseated and poisoned

when you explain it that way, people understand

[fleur-de-lisa]

14. That is a great explanation!

[whistler162]

16. Yeah it nauseateds me also.

[Sunriser13]

17. But, in other news...

"In the place of public transport, fleets of private vans career from stop to stop with their hapless, nauseated passengers."

I was certainly under the impression that the vans would careen from stop to stop...

[Ron Obvious]

18. You're correct

I'm sympathetic but I think we've lost this one.

Same way everybody says "It's me", rather than "It is I". There comes a point when perfect grammar comes across as pretentious.

That said, I will never yield on "I could care less" because it simply makes no sense!

[WinkyDink]

19. I've lately been trying to remember the distinction!