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
- The regular throbbing of the arteries as the heart beats, felt especially at the wrist or neck.
- A regular or rhythmic beat, or a single beat.
- (physics) A brief, sudden change in a normally constant quantity, such as a voltage or current.
- The general feeling or opinion of a group: the pulse of the nation.
Verb
- To beat or throb; to pulsate.
- 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
Modern meaning
Noun
- The edible seeds of pod-bearing plants such as peas, beans and lentils.
- 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ 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
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
- ^ 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)