Inexplicably today is “Vomit Day,” though I’m not entirely sure why. Usually days have sponsors, or were created by somebody. Nope. Often they make sense, like if it was possibly the day after St. Patrick’s Day or New Year’s Eve. Or perhaps something significant occurred in history to mark the day or there’s some tradition behind it. Nope. I’ve been collecting holidays and dates since I lived in New York City in the late 1970s, so I got it from somewhere, I just don’t know where I found it, and Google didn’t turn up anything useful or definitive. So I’m left scratching my head as to why today might be “Vomit Day.” But celebrate we will.

A few years ago I made a list of Puke Words, that is different slang terms for throwing up, tossing your cookies or paying homage to the porcelain god. It’s not nearly as exhaustive as my Drunk Words list, but it was only a one day project on a slow news day once upon a time. It was merely a love of language that set me down that path. But whether by getting sick or — gasp — drinking a bit too much, I reckon it’s happened to all of us at one time in our lives and I thought it would be fun to see how many puke words I could find. If you know of one I missed, please leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list. If you know where it came from, or anything more about it, that would be even better, but if it’s just something you heard somewhere while your head was bent over in the commode, that’s okay, too. Happy Vomit Day, everybody! Let’s be careful out there.