pulsate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pulsātus, the past participle of pulsō (“to beat, strike, push”),^[2][3][4][5] the frequentative of pellō (“to drive, beat, strike”),^{[6][3][7][8][9]} from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”).^[3][6] Barnhart takes it instead as a back-formation from the older noun pulsation, recorded from about 1425, and Etymonline gives that as an alternative.^[10][3][2] Barnhart counts it a doublet of push.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To expand and contract rhythmically, to throb: 1674, in J. T.'s translation of G. Harvey.^[2][4] Older accounts date it later: Etymonline to 1741,^[3] and Barnhart to 1794, in Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word began with the regular beat of the heart and arteries, after the earlier pulse and pulsation.^[2][3] It was applied to life and feeling in 1744, in M. Byles's poems,^[2] and to anything striking or moving in a regular rhythm in 1861.^[2] In physics it can mean to vary in intensity or size.^[11] A rare transitive use in diamond mining, to vibrate the material with a pulsator, is recorded from 1891.^[2]

Timeline

• 1674 – to expand and contract rhythmically, to throb.^[2][4]
• 1744 – figurative, of life or feeling.^[2]
• 1861 – to strike or move with a regular rhythm, to vibrate.^[2]
• 1891 – in mining, transitive, to vibrate diamond-bearing material.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To expand and contract with a regular beat; to throb, as the heart does: A vein pulsated in his temple as he argued.^{[11][4][5][2]}
2. To throb or move rhythmically with life, activity or feeling: The old port pulsated with trade.^[4][2]
3. To vibrate or quiver; to move with a regular alternating motion.^[11][5][2]
4. (physics) To vary in intensity, size or magnitude.^[11]
5. (mining, rare) To vibrate diamond-bearing material with a pulsator.^[2]

Word family

• pulsative

Related words

• pulsar
• pulsation
• pulsator
• pulsatory
• pulsatile
• pulse
• push

Usage notes

Stress on the first syllable was apparently normal in British as well as American English until the early 20th century: the first edition of the OED (1909) still gives only that, while Michaelis and Jones's phonetic dictionary (1913) already prefers the second syllable.^[2] Dictionary.com separates the near-synonyms: to pulsate is to move in a definite rhythm, to beat is to repeat a vibration regularly, to palpitate is to beat quickly, often with a flutter, and to throb is to beat with unusual force, often with pain or strong feeling.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins