[Ads-l] vom

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Fri May 13 16:17:31 UTC 2016


On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 10:34 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> CNN: Miley Cyrus Tweets that Donald Trump makes her feel like she's "gonna
> vom."


Oxford Dictionaries dates "vom" (verb and noun) to the 1980s:

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/vom

Earliest I can find at the moment is from 1990:

---
http://www.catb.org/jargon/oldversions/jarg221.txt
The Jargon File, version 2.2.1, Dec. 15, 1990
Note that in Commonwealth English, "barf" is generally replaced by "puke"
or "vom".
---

Noun and verb both show up on Usenet in 1991:

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https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.tasteless/V3DqCM1ybg4/brwGjKbOKnQJ
alt.tasteless, Mar. 11, 1991
I then had a bit to eat and soon I felt that familiar feeling of an
approaching vom.
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https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.tasteless/V3DqCM1ybg4/VDLNfcDk_eQJ
alt.tasteless, Mar. 12, 1991
Bye the way did any of you out there notice how you can speak Swahilli(sp?)
whilst vomming?
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https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.tasteless/-d5p1JSlNCA/IY4fUxA6LEkJ
alt.tasteless, May 10, 1991
& the Romans,alas,were not into vomming for the sheer joy of it or merely
to empty their stomachs - they served so many courses at banquets that it
was obligatory to vom between them in order not to insult the host by
refusing any food. [...] The best clue to an oncoming vom,or so I've found
is that odd sensation of dryness in the mouth complemented by sudden
overactivity by the saliva glands.
---
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.callahans/1mfea8L1PVQ/3USYEbBaTX4J
alt.callahans, June 26, 1991
Of course, if you actually want to keep your friends, keep them happy by
vomming in next-door's garden.
---

--bgz

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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