(noun. /naa-zhuh/)
by Ellissa DeFeyter
What does it mean?
Nausea is a painful compression sensation in the stomach. Sometimes nausea precedes a spell of vomiting, but it is also common to have the feeling without emesis (vomiting). Nausea is something anyone can experience. Common causes of nausea include motion sickness (such as in a car or on a boat) and bacterial infections. Medical researchers believe that nausea evolved to prevent humans from ingesting harmful substances.
How do I use it in a sentence?
Lucinda always gets nauseous whenever we ride in a boat with choppy water.
Etymological Origin of Nausea
The word nausea comes from the ancient Greek word naus, meaning “ship.” Naus was combined with “ia” to literally translate as “ship sickness.” This was likely due to Greek sailors noticing the motion sickness that accompanies boat travel. The word “nausia” was later translated from Greek to Latin as “nausea”, and then was directly taken from Latin into English without further alteration. English speakers began using the word nausea in the early 15th century to describe stomach pain, whether it occurred at sea or on land.
Ancient Greek Ship (Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons)
