Projectile Vomit?

The phrasing of this term has been bothering me for the past few days.  What does it actually mean to have projectile vomit?  Is there some sort of intent involved?  Is there some sort of distance or momentum requirement?  I ask these questions because I've noticed over the past few flu seasons that the word "vomit" is without fail associated with the word projectile.  I assume that this is used to garner sympathy from those that said vomit is being described to.

Yes, I am sympathetic to the preacher in The Exorcist, that pea soup was DEFINITELY projectile and hit the mark.  Or, take this Classy Reporter, this could also probably be described as projectile, but I'm mostly sympathetic that almost 2 million people have viewed this travesty.

But I posit that non-projectile vomit deserves far more sympathy than the projectile species.  How exactly does one have vomit without any sort of projection?  Well, certainly any images that you conjure in your head are likely to cause you to [projectile] vomit.

What are your thoughts?