[Thad E Ginathom]

What was the matter?
What is the matter?
What will be the matter?
what will have been the matter?

[McLaren Rulez]

I'm not sure if this has been posted before (and I'm not about to go through sixty seven pages to check) but I find that the word nauseous is often used when the word that should be used is nauseated. Nauseous things make you puke. When you see something disgusting, you feel nauseated.

Of course, this doesn't happen often on the forum since vomit is rarely the subject of an extended discussion but its still worth remembering...

[Thad E Ginathom]

I think...

Nausiating things make you feel like puking, ie feel Nauseous

I would say,"That was a nauseating experience," rather than, "the mess on the road, after the accident, was nauseous".

We should, even in this forum, try to get this right --- if only for the Accidents thread!

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by bottle

Any thoughts on the usage of the suffix -wise ? Googled around and there are a lot of opinions about it and most of them are that it isn't proper english. Eg. customerwise

Asked my teenage cousin what time her dad comes home?
Answer: 6-ish

How's the new job?
Answer: Its OKish

[BusyBoyKK]

The pit stop lead me here.
Informative thread, as all others.

@Sam,
Thanks for making typing in English so interesting. My school teacher did not teach this way (English = Cars + Girls)
Certainly, my emphasis on typing proper English increased after visiting this thread.

Busy Boy.

[Abhay]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

It is the management types, and the consultants, that you hear talking about binary situations, black boxes, and jargon that they think sounds clever but doesn't. Management speak: I hate it!

Tell me about it! Management speak gets on my nerves, especially the management speak found in techie companies (I am a techie myself...well I try to be I guess)

Rather than saying "let's meet or discuss this again" it is "lets touch base" - what the __?
or "do you have bandwidth?" - I am not a freaking router/server.

But what can you expect when a real person becomes a resource in such places

[Thad E Ginathom]

Shall we take that offline, Abhay?

... But what can you expect when a real person becomes a resource in such places

And when sacking is called "letting someone go". Hey, thanks, Mr Boss, but I don't want to go just now!

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

And when sacking is called "letting someone go". Hey, thanks, Mr Boss, but I don't want to go just now!

+1 to that

Another common IT-jargon: Let's sync-up (What the ...!)

A common mistake that I've noticed in Chennai - people say "You could able to do blah blah..." , "I can't able to see it"... The pronunciation is Listening to these kind of things very often has made me wonder if what I speak is the right.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Let's sync-up

I haven't heard that one --- but, having been "outside of the workplace" for about seven years now, I am probably well out of touch.

Remember serial communications? modems, dumb terminals and stuff? It gives me a mental picture of two people plugging into a breakout box and getting all those RTS/DTS/DTR/DSR (and whatever I forgot) lights shining!

Maybe its a natural progression of language. There's a huge list of English sayings that are sea-based, and a few of them are wrong, like any port in a storm, for instance. No: the sailor's sayiing is, When in doubt; stay out. Being at sea in a storm is heaps safer than being close to land and trying to enter an unknown port.

[ajitkommini]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

No: the sailor's sayiing is, When in doubt; stay out. Being at sea in a storm is heaps safer than being close to land and trying to enter an unknown port.

Is it really a choice between an unknown port vs. the open sea? I always took it to mean something like "If you've got to find a port, and there's a storm brewing, head for the nearest one instead of trying to make your way back home".

[Thad E Ginathom]

I can only speak as one who sailed for pleasure, and was never very far from home anyway, but generally, one powers good seamanship with a vast amount of pessimism --- if it can go wrong it will! The professional sailor would have been unlikely to still be near home anyway.

Of course, it would not be so simple as setting off two sayings against one another: even a known port on a lee (downwind) shore might be too dangerous, whereas, if it can be reached, an unknown one to windward might give welcome shelter.

My general sense, though, is that "any port in a storm" is a landsman's saying, just as is the usual use of the word leeway, which is given a positive slant by the landsman. To the sailor, leeway is an unavoidable and undesirable thing (adding to the danger of those lee shores!), and not a margin for error.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I think...
Nausiating things make you feel like puking, ie feel Nauseous

Isn't it the other way? Nauseating thing make you feel nauseated. Not nauseous.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I would say,"That was a nauseating experience," rather than, "the mess on the road, after the accident, was nauseous".

From what I understand, both are correct. Anyone else want to throw some light over here?

[Thad E Ginathom]

I am not being academic here, just telling what comes naturally to me as a native English speaker (to my shame, it is still the only language I do speak).

A clue though, is the past perfect (ie finished) sense of the -ed word.

thinking at the keyboard...

Wait... I suspect that Nauseated is a verb, past tense, and nauseous is an adjective. I'd get the big dictionary off the shelf, but a wedding reception beckons! Maybe later

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by ajitkommini

Is it really a choice between an unknown port vs. the open sea? I always took it to mean something like "If you've got to find a port, and there's a storm brewing, head for the nearest one instead of trying to make your way back home".

I have never sailed, but I have read a hell of lot of books on sailing warships and early naval warfare. And this is what I think.

Both the statements are valid, but in different times. In the earlier centuries, in the absence of international laws, entering a foreign or unknown port was a big risk. One had to be very wary of desertions, diseases, heavy port taxes and most importantly confiscations. Once you are at port, you in the mercy of the port authorities. Sailors used to be very healthy after a month in sea, but in risk of catching illness once reaching shore, only exception being scurvy. Therefore, they would rather risk a storm in the deep sea than enter an unknown port.

But with the current international laws and absence of pressed sailors and modern medicines have changed the rule of thumb. Now it is safer to be in port than be in the open sea.

[Delta Wing]

My 2 cents:

Nausea has a verb that is used with the subject (as acting on the subject):

I feel nauseated.

It can become an adjective if used against a noun:

A nauseous stench assaulted me as I approached.....

It can become a present continuous tense word with an adjective:

With nauseating sluggishness, the snail slithered...

Corrections welcome.