What we think is historical fact often isn’t, which brings me to the impolite subject of, uh, vomit. I apologize to any and all readers who have a gag reflex at even seeing the word vomit in print. I bring this unsavory up for a couple of reasons.

For one, it’s interesting to note that for most of my life I thought the vomitorium was a Roman building frequented by Romans who liked to, well, upchuck. In your typical Roman city, I thought, you had your Roman hardware store, Roman bath, Roman candle store, Roman restaurant, Roman tax collector office where your Roman nose was typically out of joint. In other words, a streetscape of Roman this and that including your vomitorium. Not so. There was no building or architectural structure, apparently, where a Roman went to, well, you know.

Let me hasten to add, however, that it wasn’t as if Romans didn’t enjoy a good dry-heave. They did. Fine dining and kecking often went hand in hand, only there was no vomitorium as such involved. According to Cicero, Julius Caesar was one Roman who liked to top off a good meal by tossing his cookies. Caesar even took vomitives to get the most out of post-meal retching. On one occasion, Caesar’s enemies had assassins waiting for him in the bathroom when he went to barf, but as luck would have it mighty Caesar went to his bedroom instead to do his business. Thus he escaped death by croaking in the bedroom instead of the powder room.

Truth is, the modern American probably knows more about the vomitorium than did the ancient Roman. A vomitorium is by definition a passage by which people in a stadium or amphitheatre can exit in a fast and speedy way. Thus you might find a vomitorium at a rock concert or soccer match or baseball game. It has nothing to do with eating a bad hotdog or too much cotton candy; it has to do with exiting the stadium after the concert or sporting event is over. It’s a way to funnel people out; you know, “vomit” them out.

That said here’s the correct use of the term in question: “Dick and Jane took the vomitorium as they were leaving the U.S. Senate Building after listening to the filibuster.”

Here’s the incorrect use of the term: “Dick and Jane went to the Capitol vomitorium after listening to the filibuster.”

Or maybe this: “Roman senators, like American ones, made citizens ill, but the best medicine was to take the vomitorium out of earshot of all that political belching.”

Bob Morgan is a retired, award-winning journalist and an author.