We finished the last piece of the cat path I posted about earlier! This one goes from the laundry room, to the stairwell, and then into the guest bedroom on the upper floor (yes, I know the carpet needs replaced in that closet). They are already using them and seem to love the new path already.
Surprisingly, somewhat related in a circuitous way…
Vomero is a neighborhood in Naples, on top of a hill and directed to upper-middle and higher class. The etymology mix is interesting: its name comes from a villa on there, which has a relation to agriculture, which uses plowshares, aka “vōmer” in Latin… which also was an informal word for penis (then again, what wasn’t in Latin)… but it stuck to the nasal bone with a shape similar to a plow.
“Vomerò” is also the first person singular of the future indicative for the Italian vomere, or “I will vomit” (…not to be confused with the Latin “vomitorium”, although that one’s etymology also comes from vomit)… and arguably, a plowshare is the part that “vomits” earth while plowing.
So you weren’t all that far away: if you vomit, chances are your vomeronasal organ, named after the bone shaped like the tool that vomits while plowing, will get a whiff of whatever goes through.
Thank you for indulging my inner etymological nerd! That was great. And unexpected. I wonder what the townfolk feel about that?
I only lived in Naples for a short time many decades ago, but there was the occasional joke of going to vomit after partying at the pubs/clubs/discos up there. It didn’t feel like they took the relationship too seriously; after all, the words are accented differently, and one is a noun while the other is a verb conjugation.