The other day I wanted to confirm how to express the not uncommon but not particularly pleasant situation “I picked up my nephew, and he threw up on my shirt.” My first attempt was «Я взял племянника на руки, и его вырвало на мою рубашку», which various Russians confirmed was grammatical. But then one pointed out that if the child was a nursing baby, which is the case I had in mind, then they wouldn't use the verb рвать/вырвать, but rather they would say «Он срыгнул на мою рубашку». I was surprised. I had never run across that verb before, which actually isn't a surprise since I've never had a nursing mother among my Russian acquaintances. It turns out that there are at least six verb pairs that can be used to express the concept of vomiting. It should be fun to explore those, yes?

First among the verbs is the pair рвать/вырвать. This is an impersonal verb, which means it never takes a nominative subject in this meaning. Rather the person who is vomiting goes in the accusative case: «Таню вырвало» “Tanya threw up.” This is the verb that they commonly use when someone throws up due to illness. Notice that if the verb is conjugated, it appears in the third person singular neuter form.

If you need to discuss such a thing in polite company with softer language, then instead you use the verb pair тошнить/стошнить, which means “to feel nauseous,” but it is also used as a euphemism for vomiting. Thus although «Мишу тошнило» means “Misha felt nauseated,” sometimes people use it to mean that he actually threw up. Notice that this is also an impersonal verb where the ill person is expressed in the accusative case.

When a nursing baby грудной ребёнок throws up a bit because he has air in his stomach or because he ate too much, then the verb they use is срыгивать/срыгнуть: «Он срыгнул на мою рубашку» “He spit up on my shirt.” If he is actually ill and vomits, then they will probably use рвать/вырвать.

On the more vulgar level there is an equivalent imperfective verb блевать: «Зоя всегда блюёт после спиртного, так как она не умеет пить» “Zoya always pukes after hard liquor because she doesn't know how to drink right.” It has a semelfactive perfective блевануть. For instance, one might say:

One of the glories of the Russian language is that a verb stem may combine with a plethora of prefix-suffix combinations to produce variations on the stem's theme. For instance, the prefix вы- sometimes means 'out from,' so if you want to indicate the item barfed out of your stomach, you can use the verb выблёвывать/выблевать:

Or better yet here (source|mirror) is my favorite:

«Очень неприятно»? Sheesh, talk about an understatment.

The prefix на- sometimes adds the meaning of "onto", which in this case alters the stem into наблёвывать/наблевать with a meaning of “to make dirty by vomiting,” e.g.:

Sometimes a prefix doesn't change the meaning of a stem all that much. Consider сблёвывать/сблевать:

The whole topic of prefixed verbs is really neat. We may have to blog about that topic in the near future.

I suppose I had better make three more stylistic points.

1. The verbs with the stem блев- really are vulgar. If you are an American student in Russia, don't write them in compositions. Don't repeat them in front of your teachers. Especially don't practice them in front of your host mother, or she'll whack you upside the head.

2. Russians do not normally discuss bodily functions in front of each other unless there is a particular need to. Russians who are willing to answer your questions about stylistics tend to have a well developed sense of propriety. If you pose questions about this type of word, you may well be stonewalled.

3. The primary meaning of рвать is “to tear/rip,” so most of the time when you see the verb it won't mean “vomit.”

PS. I mentioned to a Russian acquaintance that one of our American idioms was “to pray to the porcelain god.” He responded with a Russian idiom «общаться с белым другом» which might be loosely translated as “to have a chat with your white friend.”

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