pulse

Pulse, a beat, is from Latin pulsus; pulse, peas and beans, is from Latin puls, porridge.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pʌls/ (UK); /pʌls/ (US)^[4]

pulse¹ beat

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pous, later puls,^[1][3] borrowed from Old French pous (“pulse”), Latinized pouls (modern French pouls),^[2][3] and directly from Latin pulsus, beating (pulsus venārum, the beating of the veins),^[2][1][5] from the past participle of pellere, to push, drive, beat,^[2][1][6] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”) according to Watkins.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The rhythmical beating of the arteries: about 1330 in the OED, before 1338 in Mannyng's Chronicle in Barnhart.^[7][1]

Semantic evolution

The place where the pulse is felt, especially the wrist, is from about 1374,^[7] and each single beat from about 1430.^[7] Extended uses, of life, energy, feeling or opinion, are from the early 16th century,^[2] and to feel the pulse of something, to discover the sentiment, from about 1540.^[7][1] The verb, to throb, is from before 1425,^[1][2] also from Latin pulsāre, to beat, push.^[1][3] In physics and electronics a pulse is a brief sudden change in a quantity such as voltage.^[8][9]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – the beating of the arteries.^[7]
• c. 1374 – the place of the pulse.^[7]
• before 1425 – to throb (verb).^[1]
• c. 1540 – to feel the pulse (figurative).^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The regular throbbing of the arteries as the heart beats, felt especially at the wrist or neck.
2. A regular or rhythmic beat, or a single beat.
3. (physics) A brief, sudden change in a normally constant quantity, such as a voltage or current.
4. The general feeling or opinion of a group: the pulse of the nation.

Verb

1. To beat or throb; to pulsate.
2. To send out in pulses.

Word family

• pulsate
• pulsar
• pulsation

pulse² legumes

Etymology

It is Middle English pols, borrowed from Old French pols (“porridge”), pouls,^[1][2][3] and directly from Latin puls, pultis, a thick porridge of meal or pulse,^[1][2][3] probably, perhaps through Etruscan, from Greek πόλτος (póltos, “porridge”);^[1][2][6] the Greek and Latin may both come from a non-Indo-European Mediterranean source.^[2] Compare pollen.^[1][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Peas, beans and lentils: 1297, in the compound polscorn, in Barnhart; the late 13th century in Etymonline.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

The form puls appears in 1388–89.^[1] The plants that yield these seeds are also called pulse.^[8]

Timeline

• 1297 – polscorn.^[1]
• 1388–89 – puls.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The edible seeds of pod-bearing plants such as peas, beans and lentils.
2. A plant that yields such seeds.

Related words

• impulse
• repulse
• pulsative
• pulsator
• pulsatory
• compel
• propel
• poultice
• pollen

Usage notes

In Irish English, pulse of my heart is a term of endearment.^[10] In some English dialects pulse meant beans and peas growing together.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b 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)