vomit

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English vomit, also vomet,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vomit or vomite, or directly borrowed from Latin vomitus (“a vomiting”),^{[4][5][6][2][7]} from the past participle of vomō (“to vomit, spew forth”).^[4][2][8] The verb is vomiten,^[5][9][10] borrowed from vomitō (“to vomit often”), its frequentative, or from the stem of its past participle.^{[4][6][10][9]} The Latin verb is cognate with Ancient Greek ἐμέω (eméō, “to vomit”) (the source of emetic), Sanskrit वमति (vamati, “he vomits”), Lithuanian vémti (“to vomit”) and Old Norse vǣma (“seasickness”),^{[5][10][2][8][1]} all from Proto-Indo-European *wemh₁- (“to spit, vomit”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An instance or fit of vomiting: 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon;^[4] the matter vomited, about 1390, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[4] The verb is recorded in 1422, in James Yonge's translation of the Secreta Secretorum, in the intransitive sense "to throw up".^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

Before 1400 the noun also meant a medicine that causes vomiting, an emetic,^[4][11] a sense Merriam-Webster now marks archaic.^[3] Figurative uses of the noun, often alluding to the dog returning to its vomit in Proverbs and the Second Epistle of Peter, are recorded from 1575,^[4] and since 1612, in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, it was a term of contempt for vile people or things.^[4] The transitive verb, to bring up food, is recorded from the 1540s and 1560;^[4][5] from 1552 it was used of discharging flames or water with force, from 1597 of pouring out people in numbers, and since 1614 of a volcano.^[4] Uttering abuse, to vomit forth words, follows from 1592.^[4]

Timeline

• 1387 – noun, an act of vomiting.^[4]
• c. 1390 – noun, the matter vomited.^[4]
• a1400 – noun, an emetic.^[4]
• 1422 – verb, to throw up.^[10][4]
• 1541 – verb, with forth, out or up.^[4]
• 1552 – to discharge flames or water with force.^[4]
• 1592 – to pour out abusive language.^[4]
• 1612 – noun, contemptuous, a vile person or thing.^[4]
• 1614 – of a volcano, to eject.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring up the contents of the stomach through the mouth; to be sick: The patient vomited twice during the night.^{[12][3][13][4]}
2. To pour out or be poured out with force; to spew: The chimney vomited black smoke.^{[12][3][13][4]}
3. To utter abusive or offensive words.^[4][6]

Noun

1. Matter brought up from the stomach.^{[12][3][13][4]}
2. An act of vomiting.^{[12][3][13][4]}
3. (archaic) A drug that causes vomiting; an emetic.^{[3][12][13][4]}

Word family

• vomiter
• vomitive
• vomitously
• vomitous
• black vomit

Related words

• emetic
• vomitory
• nux vomica
• wamble

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins