From the KC Star’s story on Kauffman Stadium renovations (bold mine):
Also scheduled for completion: New bullpens, expanded dugout-box seating, expanded crown seating behind the plate, the removal of one circular ramp on each side and the construction of expanded vomitories to field-level concourse.
I like to think I’m “down with words,” but I wasn’t positive on this one. I first assumed a vomitory must be a place to regurge after a hot dog and peanut binge on Buck Night. Wrong.
- an entrance to an amphitheater or stadium
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
- a Swedish brutal death metal band formed in 1989. The band has released six albums as of 2007. They are currently signed to Metal Blade Records.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomitory (band)
- A popular misconception is that the Romans made use of a room called a vomitorium for the express purpose of vomiting between meals to make room for more food. Only a very small minority of the highest classes indulged in the practice of deliberately vomiting. A vomitorium is actually an entirely unrelated architectural feature – a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre, an exit through which the crowds could “spew out” at the end of a show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_eating_and_drinking#Vomitorium
that word caught my attention today too . . . i had to look it up online as well because i knew it couldn’t be another word for urinal trough. why would they put such a word in a newspaper other than to purposely elicit a chuckle from me . . .
I had some inner turmoil over whether to simply talk about the word, or go after the Star for putting it in there in the first place. It’s obviously architectural terminology. Why didn’t they explain what it meant? This is sub-Flanagan behavior.