|
justified gloating
You would not believe the number of times Phil and I have had a conversation like this:
Me: Ugh, I feel nauseous.
Him: No, you feel nauseated.
Me: No, I don't. I feel nauseous.
Him: Do you feel disgusting?
Me: No, I feel nauseous.
Him: Things are nauseous; what you feel is nauseated.
Me: Well, what, I feel is nauseous. So deal with it.
Him: Well, you're wrong. So deal with that.
Me: Look. I can feel nauseous. That is something that I can do, in my dialect of English.
Him: Well then your dialect is wrong.
Me: Dialects can't be wrong! Okay? Can we just agree to disagree and drop it?
Him: I will drop it if you just admit you're nauseated.
Me: [primal scream] First of all I'm nauseous, and second of all I am not arguing about this anymore.
Him: Fine, but you're nauseated.
Me: Whatever.
[Both fume silently.]
The reason that we have these arguments so often is that Phil likes to eat really disgusting food, such as mustard and peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and does so even when I beg and plead for him not to. And then he insists on "correcting" me each and every single time I use the word nauseous. Both of these behaviors, frankly, are obnoxious. Especially when he is a guest at my apartment.
On our road trip to PEI, after, oh, I don't remember, maybe 8 hours in the car, I started to feel a little carsick. Phil asked me if I was ok, and I told him that actually, I felt a little nauseous. Phil, because he is more concerned for my grammar than my person, immediately tells me the correct word is "nauseated." I, on the other hand, am more concerned with my stomach, so I acquiesce. "Fine. I feel nauseated." Phil beams, "Thank you!" Annoyed by his self-righteousness, I petulantly tell him that I gave in because I don't feel like arguing about it, not because I actually agree. Phil sulks. For the rest of the trip I try to remember to use the phrase "I feel sick" instead. The point of all of this that I at least try to be the bigger person. And mostly succeed.
Today, I was reading a recap on TWoP in which a recapper corrected a participant in The Amazing Race who had said she felt "nauseous." "Actually," wrote Miss Alli, " she feels nauseated." Sars then, in turn, corrected her: "Actually, she feels either." If you click on that link, you will read the following (emphasis mine):
Main Entry: nau seous
1 : causing nausea or disgust : NAUSEATING
2 : affected with nausea or disgust
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.
I felt so elated upon reading this, I cannot even tell you. I immediately wrote an email to Phil, to settle the matter once and for all.
dear phil,
please access the following link and read the note on usage. then maybe think about all the times you have been WRONG and also kind of a pompous blowhard despite it. i hope this teaches you something and hope that what it teaches you is not to be such a jerk to me in the future.
love,
laura
ps. in 60 hours i will be on a plane headed to philadelphia! wooohooo! i'm so excited i'm almost nauseous!
pps. i apologize for being a little mean above, but you totally had it coming.
I was trying to set a good example by apologizing at the end there. Was it too subtle?
|
|
|
about
"The mind of the thoroughly well informed [person] is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, and everything priced above its proper value."
archives
credits
|
|