nausea

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈnau̯.se.a]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈnaːu̯.se.a]^[1]

Forms

nausea f (genitive nauseae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ναυσίη (nausíē, “seasickness”), the Ionic form of a word meaning literally “ship-sickness”, from ναῦς (naûs, “ship”).^[2][3][4][1] The TLL explains the Latin e for Greek i as a vulgar pronunciation, later corrected to nausia after the Greek.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[5] in whom a character who feels unwell is told it must be seasickness.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was seasickness, as when Cicero writes that he sailed “without fear and without seasickness”.^[2][6] It extended to any feeling of sickness or vomiting, a term in Cato, Celsus and Pliny the Elder, and figuratively to disgust or loathing, as in Seneca and Martial.^[2][7]

It is the source of French nausée, and of Old French noise “din, quarrel”, according to Köbler and Wiktionary.^[1][5] English borrowed nausea in the early 15th century, never limited to seasickness.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for seasickness.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for a feeling of sickness.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero sails without seasickness.^[2][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for weariness and disgust.^[2][5]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as English nausea.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Seasickness.^[2][6]
2. Nausea, sickness; vomiting.^[2][6]
3. (figurative) Disgust, loathing.^[2]

Word family

• nauseō
• nauseola
• nauseōsus

Related words

• nāvis
• English nausea
• English noise

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn