After
stuffing themselves on turkey and dressing yesterday on Thanksgiving, I bet
some of your relatives headed for the couch and said they felt nauseous.
Many people
think nauseous means to feel sick. It actually means to cause nausea. So when people say they are nauseous, what
they’re really saying is that they’re causing people around them to feel sick.
Which, depending on your birth order or other factors, may be much more
accurate in your family dynamic. But when you’re commenting on the state of
your own digestive system, you should say, “I feel nauseated.”
Another
commonly misused word is peruse. As I did for years, you might think peruse
means to skim or glance over something. It actually means to review something
carefully or in-depth. In other words, the perceived definition is actually
opposite of the true definition.
Here’s one
more before I go get a turkey sandwich for breakfast. Some people think bemused
means amused or slightly tickled about something. What it really means is
confused.
What other incidents
of word confusion have you heard at your Thanksgiving table or elsewhere?
