From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordNausea and lothing name bodily queasiness in Burton's symptom catalogue; loathing also ranges through disgust, boredom, aversion to medicine and rejection of a lover.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe hypochondriacal catalogue gives nausea among symptoms added by Guianerius, then describes swelling and wind, a lothing and an appetite to vomit when the disorder proceeds from the myrache, here rendered the abdominal wall.
- In this editionOriginal nausea is retained in the medical list, while lothing becomes nausea and “appetite to vomit” becomes “an urge to vomit.”
- A place to readDisgust intensified by a physician’s commentary in the pig-dissection anecdote.
Meaning
Nausea and lothing name bodily queasiness in Burton's symptom catalogue; loathing also ranges through disgust, boredom, aversion to medicine and rejection of a lover. The form loath may be the verb loathe, but in “loath to depart” it is an adjective meaning reluctant. Grammar and object decide whether the person detests something or simply does not wish to act.
Use in the book
The hypochondriacal catalogue gives nausea among symptoms added by Guianerius, then describes swelling and wind, a lothing and an appetite to vomit when the disorder proceeds from the myrache, here rendered the abdominal wall. The latter appetite is an urge, not hunger; Appetite retains that wider faculty's treatment. Lothing and the urge to vomit are coordinated symptoms rather than evidence that vomiting has already happened. The historical bodily region and the assigned causes should not be collapsed into a modern diagnostic label.
The pig-dissection narrative supplies a completed act instead. A woman sees exposed entrails, smells an offensive odour and hears a physician's comparison between their contents and her own body. He adds further loathsome examples; she takes them so deeply to heart that she vomits and remains disturbed. The physician's language is part of the reported causal sequence. Burton's story is not a simple proof that the mere sight of anatomy has the same effect on every observer.
Aversion can obstruct the very means offered as help. Patients said to have a loathing and distaste of medicine prefer worsening illness to taking it. Burton quotes Melanchthon's severe judgement on this conduct, but the lexical force is refusal through disgust or prejudice, not a description of the medicine actually producing nausea. Fulsome owns the separate family of offensive preparations, while Purging owns induced evacuation.
Loathing also marks satiety. Pleasant food, places, company or amusements can become wearisome through repetition, like manna to the Israelites or life in a cage. Yet Burton's library example tests the observer's expectation: being shut up with books might seem likely to breed disgust, but Heinsius reports increasing delight. Duration and confinement therefore do not by themselves determine an experience's value. “To thy thinking” attributes the anticipated loathing to an imagined reader, not to the contented scholar.
The erotic discussion distributes desire and dislike asymmetrically. One person loves someone who hates him, while that person's own beloved loathes her. Cupid's opposed darts give a mythic image of those contrary directions. A later encouragement compares varying preferences to people who loathe honey and love sour juice: aversion is not an objective scale shared by every palate. The lover who is loath to leave, however, exemplifies the opposite of disgust; repeated farewells show how strongly he wishes to remain.
Burton even admits that his precautionary repetition may cause nausea in the reader. The Latin parenthesis immediately explains why he accepts that cost: better redundant words than an omitted warning. The object is a tiresome literary repetition, and the modern edition translates its effect as disgust, not a reported bodily bout. This self-conscious use joins bodily aversion to the management of reading without turning all distaste into disease.
Related entries
- Fulsome: offensive or nauseating objects.
- Appetite: appetite as an urge rather than hunger alone.
- Diet and regimen: the wider regimen and food choices.
- Purging: vomiting and induced evacuation.
Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.
Places to read
- Subsection 3 Terrors and Frights as Causes of Melancholy · paragraph 13Disgust intensified by a physician’s commentary in the pig-dissection anecdote.
- Subsection 5 How Loss of Liberty, Servitude and Imprisonment Cause Melancholy · paragraph 3Loathing from satiety and monotony.
- Subsection 2. Symptoms or Signs in the Mind · paragraph 46Readerly disgust from repeated warnings.
- Subsection 2 Symptoms of Windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 16; note 4671Nausea, lothing and an urge to vomit; note identifies myrache as the abdominal wall.
- Subsection 2. Concerning the Patient · paragraph 29Aversion to taking medicine.
- Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraph 17Expected disgust contradicted by Heinsius’s delight in the library.
- Member 4 Subsection 1 Symptoms or Signs of Love Melancholy in Body and Mind Good and Bad Signs and So Forth · paragraph 31Loath as reluctant to leave the beloved.
- Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 26Unreciprocated love and loathing.
- Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 71Contrasting palates as an analogy for different preferences.
In this edition
Original nausea is retained in the medical list, while lothing becomes nausea and “appetite to vomit” becomes “an urge to vomit.” In the reading warning, nauseam is rendered as disgust; in the lover's departure, loath becomes reluctant. These are contextual distinctions, not inconsistent modernization. The family has no single translation that would fit all four constructions.
nausea
Queasiness or sickness of the stomach. The list is explicitly attributed; nausea does not include every neighbouring symptom in its lexical meaning.
Original wording: “Guianerius addes, vertigo, nausea, much spitting”
Modern wording: “Guianerius adds vertigo, nausea, much spitting”
Lookup: nausea.
a lothing
A feeling of nausea. The coordinated urge to vomit is distinct from completed vomiting and remains also accessible under Appetite, Appetite.
Original wording: “a lothing, and appetite to vomit”
Modern wording: “nausea, an urge to vomit”
Lookup: lothing; loathing: nausea.
loathsome instances
Disgusting examples or comparisons. The physician supplies the examples after the original sensory encounter; language contributes to the ensuing distress.
Original wording: “aggravated the matter by some other loathsome instances”
Modern wording: “made matters worse with other loathsome examples”
Lookup: loathsome; loathsom.
a loathing satiety
Surfeit that produces disgust or weariness. The comparison extends beyond eating to places, society and amusements, despite their possible goodness.
Original wording: “there is a loathing satiety of all things”
Modern wording: “there is a surfeit of everything that ends in disgust”
Lookup: satiety: loathing.
licet nauseam paret lectori
Although it may cause disgust or weariness in the reader. Burton knowingly risks tiresome repetition to keep a warning explicit; this is not a medical observation of vomiting.
Original wording: “licet nauseam paret lectori”
Modern wording: “though it may disgust the reader”
Lookup: nauseam; nausea: readerly disgust.
a loathing & distaste of Physick
Aversion to taking medicine. The attitude precedes refusal to take any medicine, rather than recording an effect after a dose.
Original wording: “a loathing & distaste of Physick”
Modern wording: “loathing and dislike of medicine”
Lookup: loathing medicine; distaste.
should have bred a loathing
Might have been expected to cause disgust. Heinsius’s actual response is greater delight; the anticipated loathing belongs to the reader’s supposition.
Original wording: “that which to thy thinking should have bred a loathing”
Modern wording: “What you might think would have bred disgust”
Lookup: loathing: expected but absent.
loath to depart
Reluctant or unwilling to leave. The repeated farewells show attachment, not aversion to the beloved. Loath is adjectival here.
Original wording: “yet loath to depart”
Modern wording: “he is reluctant to leave”
Lookup: loath: reluctant.
love and loath
Love and feel aversion toward others in differing combinations. The next clauses assign love and hatred to different people; reciprocal desire is not assumed.
Original wording: “They love and loath of all sorts”
Modern wording: “They love and loathe in every combination”
Lookup: loath: loathe; loathe.
loath hony
Dislike honey, despite its usual sweetness. The contrasting preferences are an analogy for variable erotic likes, not a physiological classification of all palates.
Original wording: “loath hony and love verjuice”
Modern wording: “loathe honey and love sour grape juice”
Lookup: loathing: preference.