Employee #1: Jane says that she feels nauseous. I think she's going home.
Employee #2: Well Jane should take a course in English vocabulary, because if she feels nausea, then she feels 'nauseated,' not nauseous. To be nauseous is to be disgusting or foul.
Employee #1: You're kinda a bitch.
Hadley Road
South Plainfield, New Jersey
Overheard by: Quitting soon
via Overheard in the Office, Oct 23, 2006
10 comments:
That is one of my pet peeves, though. There ain't no exscuse for talking bad grammar.
Justice for the grammar nazis.
And besides, you should really be right if you're going to be a bitch. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nauseous
You know, you can put up all the fancy links you want, Mr. Lawyer-Man, but the only reason nauseous is used incorrectly and accepted is from common usage changing the meaning of the word. Common usage is killing the English language. At this rate, the word Pacific will have two meanings. One being at the following link:
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/specific
Where will it stop? Where, I axe you?!?
Actually, these, I think, are the important phrases to note from the page I linked to: 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 Nauseous is more common than nauseated in the sense “affected with nausea,” despite recent objections by those who imagine the sense to be new.
Oh I saw them, but do you really believe everything you read on the internet? Webster says that it can be used figuratively meaning nauseated. If you are literally sick however, you are nauseated. If you are literally nauseous, you are making others sick. Popular usage, again, is killing our language. Knaowamean? Besides, this is making me nauseous, so can we stop bickering over it. SEE!! SEE!! Figurative!!! Sorry. So how about them Chiefs? Are they bums or what?
I was simply pointing out that the meaning of the word isn't changing due to popular usage. The meaning you so adamantly claim is improper has been the meaning of the word for 400 years. Plus, if we're going to debate authority, the OED lists as the first definition for the word "affected with nausea".
But you have to say to yourself "What would Jesus say?"
I think I have made my point.
:D
What would Jesus say? I'll tell you what Jesus would say. He'd say "It puts the lotion on it's skin or else it gets the hose again." Look it up, it's in the bible. Somewhere in the middle.
Oh, and Hadrian is correct.
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