Comment by dofm
1 day ago
Apposite name but — grim trivia — bear in mind some emetophobes have a meaningful physiological reaction to the word and various euphemisms.
I have tried not to use it analogously ever since someone pointed this out. The word itself causes discomfort for a lot of people, many of whom will be surprised by it out of context, but in a non-trivial fraction it causes proper discomfort.
If you want people to use your tool it is probably better not to invoke nausea with its name or commands.
I am feeling nauseous and I dind't even think that it might have been due to what I was reading. Nice info, thanks.
I only realised when I was told about it that, while for me it doesn't have that nausea trigger, it does have a bit more alert associated with it — which is probably why I made my comment at all. I am not emetophobic (might have risen to that level as a child).
But having an awareness of that alert feeling is a very useful mental model for how some other words or phrases may cause a heightened response with different parts of an audience; it is a useful caution.