nauseous = nauseated (1885)

[Peter A. McGraw]

Oh, I'm sure I've heard "naw-zhe-ated" as well as "naw-ze-ated," though
from different speakers.  What strikes me is hearing "nawshus" from
speakers the rest of whose speech would lead me to expect "naw-ze-ated"
rather than "naw-she-ated," since they weren't British.  I assume
"naw-zhe-ated" speakers would use the -zh- consistently (i.e.,
"naw-zhe-ous" or "nawzhus").

Peter

--On Tuesday, January 11, 2005 11:58 AM -0500 "Dennis R. Preston"
<preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:

> Peter,
>
> Then you never heard me and a bunch of my kind who all use -zh-
> rather than -sh-. It's certainly a LH (i.e, Lowland Hillbilly) form
> but may have wider distribution.
>
> dInIs
>
>
>
>> I came in on this discussion in progress when I rejoined the list after
>> an absence, so I apologize if this aspect has already been covered, but
>> it seems to me that "nauseous" is isolated by its pronunciation in
>> addition to its other peculiarities.  I don't recall ever hearing it
>> pronounced other than "nawshus," whereas I don't recall hearing the
>> other words in question pronounced other than "naw-ze-ating" and
>> "naw-ze-ated."  A kid I went to high school with, who was British, was
>> famous for saying "naw-she-ated," but I'm sure the "nawshus" pronouncers
>> I've heard--even very recently--were not all British.
>>
>> Peter Mc.
>>
>> --On Monday, January 10, 2005 5:02 PM -0500 Benjamin Zimmer
>> <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
>>
>>> In other words, "nauseous" has become a "skunked word" -- a word that
>>> has undergone a recent semantic shift and is therefore a source of
>>> confusion amongst those unsure of which sense is the accepted one.
>>> Bryan A. Garner introduced the idea of "skunked words" in his _Modern
>>> American Usage_ (I believe "nauseous" is a prime example on his list).
>>> Garner notes that some anxious speakers simply avoid skunked words if
>>> the new, prevailing usage is disparaged by prescriptivists as incorrect
>>> and the earlier usage is no longer generally understood by anyone other
>>> than the
>>> prescriptivists.  In the case of "nauseous", the word can be avoided
>>> entirely because the speaker has recourse to the unambiguous choices of
>>> "nauseated" and "nauseating".
>>
>>
>>
>> *****************************************************************
>> Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
>> ******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>         Asian and African Languages
> Wells Hall A-740
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
> Office: (517) 353-0740
> Fax: (517) 432-2736



*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************