pouls

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pu/^[1]

Forms

pouls m (invariable)^[1] Old French pulz (about 1155), pous (13th century; about 1175 in Chrétien de Troyes), poulx (13th century); pouls from 1549 with the Latin ⟨l⟩ restored; the Académie (1694) notes that some write poux.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pulz, inherited from Latin pulsus (“push, blow”), used in medicine in “pulsus venarum, pulsus arteriarum” “the beating of the veins, of the arteries”,^[4][2][5][6] the action noun of Latin pellō (“to push, drive”) (see pousser and pulsion).^[2][1]

Compare Old Occitan pols, Spanish pulso and Italian polso.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Brut (about 1155) has tasta al pulz, he felt the pulse: the beating of the arteries.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Of the Latin senses only “beating of the arteries” survived, and by metonymy the place where it is felt, from the first texts in tâter le pouls.^[2] This phrase took a figurative sense, “to sound out”, in Gautier de Coinci (about 1225) and again from the 17th century (d'Aubigné, 1619, se tâter le pouls, Régnier, 1608).^[4][2][8] In 1618 d'Aubigné also uses le poux inesgal de ceux qui conseilloyent for the state of mind of a group.^[4][2] Prendre le pouls is recorded in 1864, and medicine added pouls veineux (1823).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1155 – Pulz in Wace.^[4]
• c. 1225 – Figurative taster le pous.^[4]
• 1549 – The spelling pouls.^[2]
• 1608 – Se tâter le pouls in Régnier.^[4]
• 1619 – Tâter le pouls “to sound out”, in d'Aubigné.^[4]
• 1823 – Pouls veineux.^[4]
• 1864 – Prendre le pouls.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The pulse: prendre le pouls, pouls rapide.^[9][1]
2. Tâter le pouls à qqn, de qqch.: to sound someone out, gauge the mood of something.^[9][3]

Related words

• pousser
• pulsion
• pulsation
• Latin pulsus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 560b
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert