Nauseous vs nauseated8/4/2023 Nauseated, while not rare, is less common than nauseous in sense 2. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. after a linking verb such as feel or become figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usu. 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. The usage note, however, shows some significant alterations (rendered in bold below): In the Tenth Collegiate (1993) the definitions of nauseous are identical to those in the Ninth Collegiate. There seems to be little use of nauseated except by those who prescribe it in place of nauseous. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea extended use is quite a bit less frequent. Usage Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 are in error. Here is how MW words the original usage note: The Ninth Collegiate also marks the appearance of the first version of the usage note that Lynn quotes in another answer to this question. Nauseous adj (1612) 1 : causing nausea or disgust : NAUSEATING 2 : affected with nausea or disgust The Ninth Collegiate (1983)-the edition that introduced the first-occurrence date feature in its word entries-tinkered with the first definition of nauseous, but not with the second: To affect or become affected with nausea disgust sicken. The Sixth Collegiate (for example) has this entry for the verb: One point that frequently goes unnoticed in discussions of nauseous is that, all along, the verb nauseate could be understood in both the "cause nausea" sense and the "feel nausea" sense. In the absence of a separate entry for nauseated-and given that the verb nauseate had the past-tense form nauseated for all three meanings given in the entry for nauseate-readers were left at sea with the Seventh Collegiate's one-word primary definition of nauseous it's easy to see why Merriam-Webster saw the need to improve on that definition for the Eighth Collegiate. Nauseate vt 1 : to become affected with nausea 2 : to feel disgust ~ vi : to affect with nausea or disgust Though the Seventh Collegiate equated nauseous in that sense with nauseated, it didn't define the latter word instead readers were left to surmise the meaning of nauseated from the dictionary's three-definition entry for nauseate: The other significant change in the Eighth Collegiate's treatment of nauseous is its replacing of the one-word definition "NAUSEATED" with a five-word descriptive definition. Nauseous adj 1 : causing nausea : SICKENING 2 : affected with nausea or disgust In the Eighth Collegiate (1973), Merriam-Webster reverses its predecessor's judgment about which meaning has historical priority, shifting nauseous as "nauseating" to the first (earlier) position: Not only does nauseous as "nauseated" make its debut in the Seventh Collegiate, but it occupies the first (that is, chronologically earlier) meaning of the word, bumping nauseous as "nauseating" to the second slot in the entry. 1 : NAUSEATED 2 : causing nausea : SICKENING But the Seventh Collegiate (1963) contains a radically altered the entry for nauseous: The Sixth Collegiate was MW's Collegiate Dictionary of record until 1963 (my copy is copyrighted 1959). Causing, or fitted to cause, nausea disgusting. As late as the Sixth Collegiate (1949), MW's entry for nauseous has just one definition: The history of nauseous in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary series is quite interesting. The story of 'nauseous' as told by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionaries Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2. 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. Some folks definitely believe that its only proper use is 'nauseating', but Merriam Webster's usage notes disagree: Nauseous is the weird one, which can mean either 'nauseated' or 'nauseating'. Nauseating is the quality of inflicting nausea on someone. Nauseated is the verb meaning to become affected with nausea.
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