emetic and vomiting and vomitory and vomiturition

After you read this essay I hope you never look at stadiums in the same way. The reason for this is the word vomitory. In a nutshell a vomitory is an entrance into a stadium or, more precisely, the entrance to the seats after you have passed through a long tunnel under the stands from the concourse. That entrance, as it were, "vomits" you or ejects you into the rest of the spectators. For example, in the description of the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, MA, named in memory of the late US Senator and Presidential Candidate Paul Tsongas (1941-1997), the following amenities or features are described: portable seating, staging, crowd control, freight elevator, passenger elevator, loading dock, vomitories... Actually, one of the vomitories is known as the "Zamboni tunnel." A Zamboni, for those who don't know much about ice or hockey, is the big machine that chops up the ice and replaces it with another layer of water in between periods of the game. The other vomitory is known as the "visiting team's entrance." Can't you hear the announcer..."Let's greet the visitors, coming through their vomitory, with an appropriate sound..."

But you need not look at a vomitory only in connection with a sports or convention arena. For example, I derived quite a chuckle the other night when I was watching the Portland Ballet's brilliant performance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and I watched people come through the various side entrances to the seats. These entrances could also be called vomitories, and as people spewed through them in their Saturday night finery (though Portland really has to win the award for America's "most casual" city), I think I caught the irony. Elegant spewing. "Honey, I'll meet you at the south vomitory after the performance for a bite to eat." Or, "Food is strictly prohibited once you have gone through the vomitory." Or "Snacks may be obtained through this vomitory."

Looking at the Word Vomit and Emetic

Now that we have had our fun, it might repay some effort actually to understand the word. Vomere in Latin translates emein in Greek. Both mean to spit up or regurgitate. Thus, the English language is fortunate in having two classical languages and words from which to derive "spewing" terminology. I think there is enough out there that makes us want to puke that we ought to have words for every occasion. Let's begin with some "emetic-related" words and then move to "vomit-related" words.

Emesis is the act of discharging something from the stomach via the mouth. An emetic induces vomiting. "The waters, when drank, operate..as emetic." But, as the OED informs us, it also has a figurative meaning of "sickening, mawkish." One might speak of the "emetic quality" of a person's voice. "After learning that the priest had been charged with various acts of sexual intimacy with boys, even the mere mention of his name had an emetic effect on her." The verb emeticize means "to cause to vomit." Emetology is the study of vomiting and emetics. I am not sure if there are openings in this field, but I would suppose that it is not as popular among med students as neurosurgery. Then, there is a word emetocathartic, which is defined as a remedy producing vomiting and purging at the same time.

The only OED reference to the use of emetocathartics takes us to a different word: "These preparations act as emetocathartics, as well as taeniafuges." I knew that a "taenia" in ancient Greek (Doric) architecture was a narrow ribbon or band separating the architrave from the friezes above it, so I was, at first, confused by the word taeniafuges. But then I realized that a taenia can also be an "tapeworm," and so a taenifuge is something that "chases the tapeworms away." Something that actually kills these things is a taeniacide, if you were curious to know that.

I also managed to find online references to emetophilia and emetophobia. The former is referred to as a sexual fantasy, but I think I will stop the thought right there before we get carried away with it.

Vomit et al.

We have a relatively richer congeries of terms in English derived from the Latin vomere. We need no introduction to the verb or noun vomit, since many of us spend a good deal of time in our youth either doing it, threatening to do it, or feeling like doing it. I like a few of the words derived from vomit, however. One has vomition, which is the "act of vomiting." Just as contrition is an act showing that one is contrite, and dormition is the act of sleeping (aren't there all kinds of medieval pictures of the Virgin Mary sleeping....?), so vomition is the act of vomiting. "Well, your honor, we caught the crook right in the moment of vomition."

Let's conclude with a sentence or two using other words. Something that is vomity is "redolent of vomit." Wow. The scent came right to my nose. J. D. Salinger, in Catcher in the Rye, has Holden say: "The cab I had was a real old one that smelled like someone'd just tossed his cookies in it. I always get those vomity kinds of cabs if I go anywhere late at night." Vomiturition is an unsuccessful act of vomiting. And, I think that is enough for now.

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