Nauseous or nauseated - and does it matter?

Readers of my blog will know that I'm a logophile - I love words. I'm also passionate about grammar, punctuation and syntax.  Many people glaze over at this point, but I'm certainly not alone, as evidenced by the numerous grammar debates, jokes and memes cropping up all over the internet. (If you've never watched one of the Jack's Films Your Grammar Sucks videos, you are missing out!)

What I'm not yet sure about is how much of a purist I am. While I, like many others, nearly wept at the announcement that the Oxford Dictionary was adding to the definition of "literally" to allow it to also mean "Used for emphasis while not being literally true", I do accept that common usage changes over time, and sticking rigidly to archaic conventions is unnecessary. In saying that, the day that "would of" or "yous" gets added into common usage is the day I stop speaking English.

Working at a University I am particularly careful about my grammar, even in emails and informal documents, and can spend hours (ok, maybe minutes) deciding whether to use "forums" or "fora" as the plural.  There are also all kinds of debates about this on internet. Even so, there are times I come across something I haven't previously heard of and then it gives me pause - if I have been using a word incorrectly for 30-odd years, and most other people use it incorrectly without obfuscating their meaning, is correct use of the word necessary?

This came up today in relation to the word "nauseous".  I have always used and understood this to mean "feeling ill" but when a friend posted on Facebook that she was feeling nauseous, someone commented that she should have used "nauseated".  Curious, I looked it up and found this very interesting post (among many others).  It turns out that saying "I am nauseous" means that I am saying that I make others feel ill; the correct term is "nauseated". Saying "that was a nauseous joke" or "that is a particularly nauseous smell" is grammatically correct and means that the noun in question makes others feel ill. "Nauseated" is the correct term to describe "experiencing nausea".

Given that most people understand "nauseous" to mean "experiencing nausea", however, using "nauseous" in its correct context can become confusing.  The post linked to above suggests dispensing with "nauseous" altogether in favour of "nauseated" and "nauseating".

Interesting. And writing the word "nauseous" so many times has now made me nauseated.

In case any of you are now queasy, here's a distraction in the form of a brilliant grammar rap. See? Grammar's cool yo!