The Meaning of Ad Nauseam and When to Use It

The Meaning of Ad Nauseam

The Latin phrase ad nauseam is an adverb that means “to a sickening or excessive degree; to the point of nausea.”¹ It begins with the Latin prefix “ad,” which can be translated to “to” or “in relation to.” The second part of the phrase is the noun “nausea,” which means “seasickness,” or, literally, “ship-sickness,” thanks to the word’s root in the Greek word for ship, “naus.” Upon initial use in English as a loanword, it retained its original meaning and referred to feeling sick. There is evidence of 16th-century slang words—”nase” and “nasy”—referring to a state of being “hopelessly drunk.”¹ This could refer to a drunken individual’s loss of balance—walking as though they were making their way across a boat in choppy water—or the end result of a queasy feeling that just wouldn’t quit.

Write with Confidence using Editor

Elevate your writing with real-time, intelligent assistance

Learn More

When to Use Ad Nauseam

If you’re in law school, or simply watch a lot of courtroom dramas, you may be familiar with the debate term “argumentum ad nauseam.” This logical fallacy employs the use of stating something over and over again. The theory is that the more often something is repeated, the more likely it is to be remembered, which may be useful for a lawyer trying to make a case. While being memorable won’t change whether a statement is true or not, it may help to sway someone’s opinion.

To use this term in their writing, deploy it when you need to describe something that is repeated so frequently that thinking about it makes you figuratively sick. Some topics that might be described this way include political ads, repetitive comments, and songs that are overplayed on the radio.

While this Latin loanword is fun, don’t overuse it. Other words and terms you might use in your writing to indicate the same thing as ad nauseam include “repeatedly,” “going on endlessly,” and “over and over again.” While these terms may not be as colorful as ad nauseam, they will keep you from using ad nauseam, well, ad nauseam.

What is a Loanword?

A loanword is a word or term from another language that is adopted into a new language without any sort of translation. They may make their debut orally, as part of conversation, or in writing, typically in scholarly, scientific, or literary purposes. While adopting foreign words as part of the English language is common, it is equally common for English words that do not have a direct translation to become part of another country’s vocabulary.

Ad nauseam has Greek and Latin roots; here are other words with similar bloodlines that have made their way unchanged into the English language:

• Cum laude
• De facto
• Marathon
• Narcissism
• Non sequitur
• Per se
• Phobia
• Persona non grata
• Pro bono
• Quid pro quo
• Semper fideles
• Status quo
• Thespian

There are so many ways to add color to your writing, whether you’re compiling scholarly research or crafting a screenplay. For additional help with structure and organization, try a writing template from Microsoft 365 to help keep you on the right track. For help getting started, look at these Writing Essentials to take your craft to the next level.