Causing nausea or revulsion; extremely disgusting or offensive.
From Latin 'nausea' meaning 'seasickness', from Greek 'nausia' related to 'naus' meaning 'ship'. The word broadened from specifically describing seasickness to any feeling of stomach upset, then metaphorically to anything that causes revulsion.
Nauseating connects our most basic survival instinct - rejecting potentially harmful substances - to complex social and moral judgments. When we find behavior 'nauseating,' we're using our body's poison-detection system to evaluate ethics, showing how deeply physical and moral responses intertwine.
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