Etymologically
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pulp

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /pʌlp/[1]
  • US: /pʊlp/, /pʌlp/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pulpe,[2][3] borrowed from Latin pulpa (“fleshy part of the body, pulp of fruit, pith of wood”),[4][3][5][6][2] perhaps partly through Anglo-Norman pulpe and Middle French pulpe, which were used of the soft flesh of fruit in Anglo-Norman medical texts of the 13th century or earlier.[4] Skeat, Weekley and Klein derived the English word from French.[7][8][9] The Latin word, earlier *pelpā, is of uncertain origin;[2][9][4] the OED and Klein relate it to pulmentum (“food prepared from pulp”),[4][9] and Etymonline suggests the same root as pulvis (“dust”) and pollen (“fine flour”).[3] It has cognates in Spanish pulpa, Italian polpa and Catalan polpa.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The soft, fleshy inside of a fruit, or the pith of a stem: before 1400, in a translation of Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie.[4][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1400.[3]

Semantic evolution

By the early 15th century the word also meant the fleshy tissue of the body, such as the pad at the tip of a finger,[4] and Etymonline notes its extension to other moist masses at the same time.[3] From 1633 it was used of any soft, wet, shapeless mass, especially one made by crushing or boiling;[4] Hoad dates the fruit sense to the 16th century and the "soft formless mass" to the 17th.[10] Johnson (1755) put "any soft mass" first and the soft part of fruit second.[11] The papermaking sense, a soft mass of fibres from rags or wood, is recorded from 1727,[4][3] the pulp of a tooth from 1771, in Hunter's Natural History of Human Teeth,[4] and crushed ore mixed with water from 1837.[4] The phrase to beat to a pulp appears in 1840, in Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop.[4] A cheap, sensational magazine was called a pulp from its paper, made of rough wood pulp:[2][3][12] the OED records it from 1928, originally in the United States,[4] and Barnhart and Etymonline from 1931, in pulp magazine; the opposite kind of magazine was called slick.[2][3] Pulp writer was in use by 1939 and pulp fiction as the name of a genre by 1943.[3] The verb, to reduce to pulp, is recorded from 1649, in Culpeper;[4][13] Etymonline dates it to the 1660s and Barnhart to 1662.[3][2] It was used of removing the pulp from coffee from 1789[4] and of turning unsold copies of a book into paper pulp from 1898.[4] In Lincolnshire, Kent and Somerset dialect, pulp was cattle feed of roots, chaff and grain cut small and mixed together,[14] and in British slang it meant nonsense or sentimentality, recorded by Partridge from 1924.[15]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – the soft fleshy part of a fruit; the pith of a stem.[4][2]
  • before 1425 – fleshy tissue of the body.[4]
  • 1633 – a soft, wet, shapeless mass.[4]
  • 1649 – verb, to reduce to pulp.[4][13]
  • 1727 – the fibrous material from which paper is made.[4][3]
  • 1771 – the soft tissue inside a tooth.[4]
  • 1789 – verb, to remove the pulp from coffee.[4]
  • 1840 – to beat to a pulp.[4]
  • 1898 – verb, to turn copies of a book into paper pulp.[4]
  • 1928 – a cheap, sensational magazine or book (originally US).[4]
  • 1943 – pulp fiction as a genre name.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The soft, juicy part of a fruit or vegetable; also the soft pith of a stem: Strain the juice to remove the pulp.[16][13][4]
  2. A soft, wet mass of cellulose fibres obtained from wood or rags, from which paper is made.[16][13][4]
  3. Any soft, wet, shapeless mass: The rain had turned the fallen leaves to pulp.[16][4]
  4. A magazine or book with sensational content printed on cheap paper; often used before a noun: a pulp thriller.[16][4]
  5. The soft tissue with nerves and blood vessels inside a tooth.[16][4]
  6. (mining) Crushed ore mixed with water.[16][4]
  7. beat to a pulp: to beat someone severely.[4]

Verb

  1. To reduce something to pulp: Pulp the berries with a fork.[16][13][4]
  2. To turn unsold copies of a book into paper pulp.[4][6]
  3. To remove the pulp from coffee berries or similar fruit.[4][13]
  4. To become pulpy.[13]

Word family

  • pulpiness
  • pulpy
  • pulper
  • pulpless
  • pulplike
  • pulpboard
  • pulpal
  • pulpectomy
  • pulment

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins