pols

pols¹ pulse

Etymology tree of pols¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin pellō

Latin pulsus

Catalan pols

French pouls

Romanian puls

Italian polso

Spanish pulso

From the same root · pols¹

English repulsive ← pellō

Latin appellō ← pellō

Latin compellō ← pellō

Latin dēpellō ← pellō

Latin dispellō ← pellō

Latin expellō ← pellō

Latin impellō ← pellō

Latin interpellō ← pellō

Latin perpellō ← pellō

Latin prōpellō ← pellō

Latin pulsō ← pellō

Latin pultō ← pellō

Latin repellō ← pellō

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈpuls]^[1]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈpols]^[1]

Forms

pols m (plural polsos)^[1] In Roussillon the word is pronounced puls, and at Llaguarres in the far west los púlsos are the temples.^[2]

Etymology

The word for the pulse is inherited from Latin pulsus (“a push, blow”), the action noun of pellō (“to push, drive”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin noun came to mean the beat of the arteries, and the Catalan word also named the places where it is felt best, the temples and the wrist.^[2]

The same Latin word is Italian polso and Old Occitan pous.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines's first record is in Cerverí de Girona, about 1270: a wife who hates her husband threatens to put on his pols an ointment that will kill him, so the first sense is the temple of the head.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The temple sense was common in the medieval language: in Muntaner an arrow strikes Corberan in the pols, and in Jaume Roig's Spill a nail is driven through Sisera's head from one pols to the other.^[2][7] The sense of the arterial beat is just as old: Llull says the physician knows an illness by the urine and the pulse, and in Canals's Valerius Maximus a physician recognises a young man's love by his pulse.^[8][7]

The temple sense is still used in Central Catalan and in the Balearics, and in Menorca fer-se es polsos means to tidy one's hair.^[2] The DCVB adds the wrist, the steadiness of the hand in writing or handling a weapon, and care in a task.^[3] Bruguera dates the verb polsar to the 19th century, in Milà i Fontanals.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1270 – Cerverí de Girona, “temple”.^[2][4]
• c. 1271 – Llull's Llibre de contemplació, “pulse”.^[8]
• 1395 – Antoni Canals's translation of Valerius Maximus.^[7]
• 1460 – Jaume Roig's Spill: de pols a pols.^[7][2]
• 1932 – Fabra defines the pulse felt at the wrist.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. pulse, the beat of the arteries, felt especially at the wrist;^[10][5][1] prendre el pols, to take someone's pulse.^[10][5][1]
2. prendre el pols a algú: to sound out someone's intentions, or those of the public.^[10]
3. Steadiness of the hand in writing, aiming or handling something.^[10][3]
4. a pols: with the arm unsupported; figuratively by one's own effort, without help.^[10]
5. temple, the side of the head between the forehead, the ear and the cheek.^[10][11][1]

Word family

• polsar
• polsada
• polsador
• polsera

pols² dust

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈpuls]^[1]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈpols]^[1]

Forms

pols f (invariable)^[1] In the oldest texts the word is mostly masculine, lo pols; the masculine survives in western dialects, in the Pyrenees of Sort, Àneu and Cardós and around Morella, while elsewhere it is feminine.^[12]

Etymology

The word for dust is inherited from Old Catalan pols, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pulvus, the neuter form that pulvis (“dust”) took in Vulgar Latin; its accusative ended in /s/, which Catalan keeps.^{[12][13][5][1][14]}

The same Vulgar Latin form is Old Occitan pous, Old Spanish polvos and Spanish polvo.^[15][16] Other languages continue the classical stem: Italian polvere, Romanian pulbere and French poudre.^[15] Catalan pólvora comes from the Latin plural ⟨pulvera⟩.^[17]

The Latin word is traditionally derived from *pel- (“flour, dust”); de Vaan prefers a form meaning “chaff” and compares palea (“chaff”).^[1][18]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Jaume I's chronicle the king sees the dust (lo pols) of the enemy's horsemen and reasons that the dust is nothing but what the wind raises.^[12][7]

Semantic evolution

In the Vides de sants rosselloneses a body lies long under the dust, translating Latin sub pulvere, and the word stands for worldly desire.^[12] Llull uses it for what is worth nothing, the dust of this world, and for the body turning to dust.^[8][12] Saint Vincent Ferrer's Sermons still have the masculine, but his Quaresma of 1413 has the feminine;^[12] Coromines puts the difference down to scribes from different parts of Valencia.^[12]

From the medieval period the word also meant any substance ground fine: a marzipan with sugar powder at Cervera in 1373, and the medicinal powders of the physicians.^[12][7] The DCVB adds a pinch, what can be held between thumb and index finger.^[14] Bruguera dates empolsar to 1696 and desempolsar to about 1900, in Verdaguer.^[13]

Timeline

• 1244–1274 – Jaume I's Llibre dels fets, masculine lo pols.^[12][7]
• c. 1271 – Llull's Llibre de contemplació: la pols d'aquest món.^[8]
• Second half of the 13th century – first records in CICA.^[19]
• 1373 – pols de sucre in a document of Cervera.^[12]
• 1413 – feminine la pols in Saint Vincent Ferrer's Quaresma.^[12]
• 1696 – empolsar.^[13]
• c. 1900 – desempolsar, in Verdaguer.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. dust, tiny particles of dry earth and other matter that the wind can lift: Els llibres de la golfa eren plens de pols.^[20][5][1]
2. fer pols: to smash to tiny pieces, to destroy.^[20]
3. fer la pols a algú: to outdo someone by far.^[20]
4. en pols: powdered, reduced to powder: cafè en pols.^[20][5]
5. A pinch, what can be taken between thumb and index finger.^[14]
6. (astronomy) pols interestel·lar: interstellar dust.^[20]

Word family

• empolsar
• desempolsar
• empolsegar
• desempolsegar