English
ad nauseam
Ad nauseam comes from Latin ad nauseam.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEad nauseam
- Englishearliest quotation 1990same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEad nauseam
- Englishearliest quotation 1990same form
Earliest quotation: 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders: “The Feelings album flew off the shelves, and Albert…”
A compound of ad ‘to’ + nauseam ‘sea-sickness, sickness, nausea’
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd ‘near, at’
Proto-Italic *ad ‘toward, to, on, up to, for’
Latin ad ‘to’
Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- ‘to swim’
Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us ‘boat’
Ancient Greek ναῦς ‘a ship’
Ancient Greek ναυσία ‘nausea, seasickness’
Latin nausea ‘sea-sickness, sickness, nausea’
Every English word from Latin ad nauseam
Today it means
adv To a nauseating or sickening degree.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin ad nauseam / ad nauseam