Language Question

If "regurgitation" is the act of throwing up, what's "gurgitation"?

And why?

gurgitation: A whirling or surging motion, as of water.

1535-45; < Latin gurgitāt (us) (past participle of gurgitāre to engulf, derivative of gurgit-, stem of gurges whirlpool;

The question might better be why does regurgitation have the meaning it does. Maybe because the surging motion in regurgitation is against the normal path of flow.

You gotta admit, it makes no sense.

I don't know. If gurgitate means to flow, and regurgitate means to flow back...Seems reasonable.

Consider these words:
nonplussed has no antonym plussed.
untoward is not the opposite of toward.
And the list goes on.
English is a very strange language.

You didn't get to the really weird stuff, like flammable and inflammable.

These are weirdnesses up with which I will not put.

Oddly enough - and I just found this out - vincible is the opposite of invincible. When's the last time you heard someone say vincible?

Another word that has disappeared is ept. Again, it survives in the negative, inept.

And the word prat, meaning ass, pretty much only survives in the compound form pratfall.

richard09 wrote:

And the word prat, meaning ass, pretty much only survives in the compound form pratfall.

Oh, you sometimes hear Brits calling each other "a right royal prat."