vomitorium

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vomitōrium (“entrance to an amphitheatre”), substantive of vomitōrius (“emetic, provoking vomiting”), from vomō (“vomit”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɒmɪˈtɔːɹɪəm/

Noun

vomitorium (plural vomitoria or vomitoriums)

a vomitorium: passage in an amphitheatre

1. A passage located behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre used as an exit for the crowds
   • 1822, John Taaffe, A Comment on the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, John Murray, page 161,

     […] the way that the greatest width of the interior of the Flavian amphitheatre would be ascertained, if a line were drawn from one of the vomitoria of the west side, in the uppermost story, to the eastern vomitorium, precisely facing it.

   • 1844, F. Buxton Whalley, "Excursions from Rome in June 1843", in Leonhard Schmitz (Ed.), The Classical Museum, page 330,

     In the tunnel to the right and left as one enters there is a passage which contains a flight of steps conducting to a "vomitorium," situated in the second "præcinctio;" […]

   • 1906, Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen, Carthage and Tunis: The Old and New Gates of the Orient, Hutchinson, page 52,

     At each of the extremities under the grand vomitorium was a gate, one called Sanivivaria and the other Mortualis.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 174:

     Miles turned to him beaming, his nostrils taking in the ambiguous smell of molten glass rising from the vomitoria beneath them, which only he among the crew found at all pleasant.

2. (see Usage notes) An area in which vomiting takes place, in particular a chamber supposedly used by ancient Romans to vomit during a feast so they could continue eating.
   • 1944, Lewis Mumford, The Condition of Man, Harcourt, Brace & World (1944), p. 467,

     In the rich man's house the vomitorium became an essential chamber: the place where the guzzler of rich food emptied his stomach, so that he might come back to the feast for more.

   • 1994, LeeAnn Alexander-Mott and D. Barry Lumsden, Understanding Eating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Obesity, Taylor & Francis (1994), →ISBN, p. 23,

     The Romans frowned on obesity, and they were accredited for ^[sic] inventing the vomitorium, which allowed them to binge and relieve themselves of the feeling of fullness.

   • 1997, Mervat Nasser, Culture and Weight Consciousness, Routledge (1997), →ISBN, p. 17,

     As for the Romans, they are famously known for their invention of the vomitorium which allowed them to indulge in excessive eating and relieve themselves by vomiting.

   • 2004, Dean R. Koontz, The Face, Bantam Books (2004), →ISBN, p. 326,

     The slight tremor in his voice dismayed him, but he persevered: "Vinnie's Soda Parlor and Vomitorium, home of the nine-pound ice-cream sundae, where you splurge and then purge."

Usage notes

• A recent interpretation that this word referred to a specific room or place in which to vomit so as to continue consuming more food is unattested in historical sources and is thus an urban legend.

Synonyms

• (passage): vomitory

Related terms

• vomit
• vomitorial
• vom

Latin

Etymology

Substantive of vomitōrius (“emetic", "provoking vomiting”), from vomō (“vomit”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /u̯o.miˈtoː.ri.um/, [u̯ɔmɪˈt̪oːriʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /vo.miˈto.ri.um/, [vomiˈt̪ɔːrium]

Noun

vomitōrium n (genitive vomitōriī or vomitōrī); second declension

1. The entrance to an amphitheatre; passage behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	vomitōrium	vomitōria
genitive	vomitōriī vomitōrī1	vomitōriōrum
dative	vomitōriō	vomitōriīs
accusative	vomitōrium	vomitōria
ablative	vomitōriō	vomitōriīs
vocative	vomitōrium	vomitōria

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Related terms

• vomitōrius
• vomō

Descendants

• English: vomitory

References

• “vomitorium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers