Hippy Chick, Here It Is

Tonight, my dear friend, hairstylist, and waxer extraordinaire, Hippy Chick and I had a mad night on the town at Chic Filet (a.k.a. Chick-fil-A, right?). During the conversation I brought up a topic that Mrs. C. had told me about.


She said that to be nauseous you had to be making someone feel nauseated. However, it seems as if Merriam-Webster says differently--


Main Entry: nau·seous Pronunciation: 'no-sh&s, 'no-zE-&sFunction: adjective1 : causing nausea or disgust : NAUSEATING2 : affected with nausea or disgust - nau·seous·ly adverb - nau·seous·ness nounusage 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.

So, Hippy, that whole diatribe is crap. Funny. I'll let Mrs. C. know she's misinformed. She said that Miss (Insert School Teacher's Name Here) was very adamant about the proper usage of this word. Now M-W disagrees.

Hmmmmm...