Nauseous

Nauseous is the physical feeling of nausea (turning stomach, etc.)

Nauseated is the effect something has on you - something has made you feel nauseous - you are the object of the nauseating subject.

e.g. "you nauseate me" = you make me feel sick

"That is nauseous" doesn't sound correct and wouldn't really make sense, given my definitions.

KP

Thanks for your reply. I just found this in Merriam-Webster.com.


Nauseous

Function: adjective
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.

Uhm... does that mean nauseous will soon be phased out of the language?

Re: Nauseous


Here's how I'd use these words:

When I'm nauseated, I feel nauseous.