Nauseous and nauseated have two different definitions, but recently they have become almost interchangeable. To many people, the following two sentences have exactly the same meaning:
Example 1: I feel nauseated when I am nervous.
Example 2: I feel nauseous when I am nervous.
In both sentences, the speaker is referring to a feeling of queasiness. It is becoming increasingly common to hear the second example above, which uses nauseous in place of nauseated. Actually, these words have two separate meanings. Nauseous is used when referring to something that actually causes a feeling of sickness, while nauseated is used to refer to the actual sensation of sickness, as illustrated in the following sentences:
Example 3 (nauseous-correct usage): The smell of rotten eggs is nauseous.
Example 4 (nauseated-correct usage): The smell of rotten eggs makes me nauseated.
Example 3 illustrates the correct usage of the word nauseous, because it refers to the smell of rotten eggs–something which causes a feeling of sickness. In Example 4, nauseated is used to refer to the feeling of nausea. Just remember that when you are feeling sick, use nauseated, but when you are referring to something that actually causes you to be sick, use nauseous.
Please note that the word nauseating is synonymous with nauseous in that both refer to something that causes nausea. To say, “The smell of rotten eggs is nauseating” would be as correct as saying, “The smell of rotten eggs is nauseous.” The real confusion, however, lies in the difference between nauseous and nauseated.
True. I suppose my biggest problem is how just weird it sounds to say, “I feel nauseated. And also how weird it sounds to say, “The smell of rotten eggs is nauseous.” For each of those respectively I prefer nauseous and then nauseating. Also the link I posted seems to have an additional usage note which seems to line up with what you’ve said.
Usage Note : Traditional critics have insisted that nauseous is properly used only to mean “causing nausea” and that it is incorrect to use it to mean “affected with nausea,” as in Roller coasters make me nauseous. In this example, nauseated is preferred by 72 percent of the Usage Panel. Curiously, though, 88 percent of the Panelists prefer using nauseating in the sentence The children looked a little green from too many candy apples and nauseating (not nauseous ) rides. Since there is a lot of evidence to show that nauseous is widely used to mean “feeling sick,” it appears that people use nauseous mainly in the sense in which it is considered incorrect. In its “correct” sense it is being supplanted by nauseating.
Darken: Thanks for your comments. The nauseous/nauseated debate is one in which common usage seems to trump correctness. (Think of lie/lay and who/whom. How many people do you know who use these correctly or even understand the differences? Before long, the incorrect versions will be considered correct.) In my copy of The American Heritage Book of English Usage, 72 percent of the consulting panel (consisting of professionals in writing and speaking professions), preferred nauseated in a sentence such as “Roller coasters make me nauseous.” However, nauseous does seem to be winning out overall. Perhaps I should rewrite this entry to reflect the changing views of nauseous usage.
So “The smell of rotten eggs makes me nauseous.” would work as well. Sorry for all the comments. I tend to to get a lot of afterthoughts. Oh, and sorry if I sound rude. I’m not trying to be.
Check the usage note. Yeah, this was exactly how I was using it and it turns out that I wasn’t using it incorrectly after all.
Thank you for these articles. They have been of some help to me. But this one didn’t feel quite right so I checked the definition. It turns out that ‘nauseous’ can be used in the following way:, “I feel nauseous.”. Here is my reference:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nauseous?o=102213