So random musing while feeling, well… sick, with some manner of cold/flu thing.
It seems when you have some manner of respiratory bug like cold/flu/covid saying you are feeling sick is not actually the best word to use. As feeling sick implies you are feeling like your going to be sick, and that’s not usually the case. E.g. right now I’m feeling incredibly crappy, and like I might cough up lung, but I’m not in any danger of throwing up.
So what is a better word to use instead? Nausea also implies you are feeling like you are going to vomit. Fatigue or lethargy covers part of it, but that could also just mean you didn’t sleep last night, and it’s more than that.
Is there a better word out there? Given how big a part of the human condition this kind of generic respiratory bug is (especially for those of us with school aged kids ) you’d think there would be a more precise word. Do other languages have one?
I usually use the word “sick” in that case. If I feel like I’m going to be worshipping the porcelain goddess soon, I use the word “nauseous” instead. Or maybe “feeling pukey”.
I also use feeling crappy as an alternate.
Feeling “ill” as already suggested seems like a good alternate to me.
Having a general feeling of malaise is kinda wordy and clunky, but it is more precise.
Some dialects use “be sick” as a euphemism for “vomiting”. Some don’t. I grew up with that use, but I don’t consider “be sick” to exclusively mean “vomiting”. That’s about meaning number 4 or 5.
A word I use for the general “I ain’t right” feeling is “malaise”. It encompasses lethargy, but includes more general dysfunction and discomfort. Without specifically calling out any stomach, lower GI, respiratory, or musculo-skeletal symptoms.
Yeah. In my dialect, i might say “i feel sick to my stomach”. I have used “cat sick” as a euphemism for “cat vomit”, and i usually can recognize by context when someone means “he vomited” but says “he was sick”. But usually they use additional words, like, “he was sick all over the carpet”.
Same here. “Sick” doesn’t have that automatic connotation with nausea in my dialect (SE Louisiana, USA). Expressions like “I think I’m gonna be sick” are understood in context, but aren’t commonly said by locals.
@griffin1977 , from which speech community do you hail?
Yeah that’s probably the best option. But if anything maybe that’s too generic? Like it doesn’t necessarily mean feeling like you are going to be sick, but it could mean having a headache or any other illness.
That’s rather a UK idiom, I think. Here in the UK we would be more likely to say “I don’t feel well” for a more general malaise, or “I don’t feel at all well” if it’s serious .
Though of course the US usage is quite well understood.
Perhaps, though there were a few years some while back where “sick” had become adolescent slang for “awesome”. I think that usage was transient and has since become passe, but I could be wrong.
I usually see that as “I feel like I’m going to be sick”, i.e. I feel nauseous - or “I’m going to be sick”, i.e. look out because I’m about to hurl in the next few seconds.
“I feel sick” to me means someone has non-specific symptoms that are associated with some sort of infection - fever, chills, dizziness, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat and possibly also nausea. But it doesn’t specifically mean someone feels nauseous.
) you’d think there would be a more precise word. Do other languages have one?