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These two misuses are quite silly: 1) People telling me that they are nauseous (as opposed to nauseated)! Really?? You believe you are revolting/ sickening?
2) I have actually heard a nurse tell me she thought the patient was death. Hmmm. As in the grim reaper? Or could she have meant the patient was unable to hear?
I think they are using it correctly. Now if they said they were "nauseating."
Quote:
Originally Posted by skyegirl
From Merriam-Webster:
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.
I wondered because I hear people say it all the time in the hospital, and I am guilty as well.
In his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of 1791, the English elocutionist John Walker prefers ROOT but notes that the word “is often pronounced so as to rhyme with doubt by respectable speakers.” Worcester (1860), who prefers ROOT, says, “Most of the orthopeists more recent than Walker give the preference to the pronunciation [ROOT].” Ayres (1894) says hat “there is abundant authority for pronouncing the word rowt; but this pronunciation is now very generally considered inelegant.” Vizetelly (1929) says the “best modern usage pronounces the word as if written root,” and Opdycke (1939) assigns ROWT to “colloquial and provincial usage.” Funk & Wagnalls Standard (1897) countenances only ROOT, but the Century (1889-1914) sanctions ROWT as an alternative. Webster 2 (1934) says that ROOT “is now the generally accepted pronunciation, but in certain special cases rout (ou in out) prevails, as in military use, among railroad men, and, colloquially, of a delivery route.” Do You Speak American . What Speech Do We Like Best? . Beastly | PBS
In his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of 1791, the English elocutionist John Walker prefers ROOT but notes that the word “is often pronounced so as to rhyme with doubt by respectable speakers.” Worcester (1860), who prefers ROOT, says, “Most of the orthopeists more recent than Walker give the preference to the pronunciation [ROOT].” Ayres (1894) says hat “there is abundant authority for pronouncing the word rowt; but this pronunciation is now very generally considered inelegant.” Vizetelly (1929) says the “best modern usage pronounces the word as if written root,” and Opdycke (1939) assigns ROWT to “colloquial and provincial usage.” Funk & Wagnalls Standard (1897) countenances only ROOT, but the Century (1889-1914) sanctions ROWT as an alternative. Webster 2 (1934) says that ROOT “is now the generally accepted pronunciation, but in certain special cases rout (ou in out) prevails, as in military use, among railroad men, and, colloquially, of a delivery route.” Do You Speak American . What Speech Do We Like Best? . Beastly | PBS
its pronounced Rowt when it means to force to retreat, but Root, when its a road.
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