polso

Forms

polso m (plural polsi)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian polzo, Old Italian ponso and Old Italian pulso, with an old feminine plural Old Italian polsora.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pulsus (“beat, push”), an action noun from pellō (“to push, strike”).^{[4][5][6][7][1]} In Latin it meant the beat of the blood, and Italian moved it by metonymy to the place where the beat is easiest to feel.^[8]

The word is also Old French pous and Occitan pous, Catalan pols and French pouls; Spanish pulso is learned.^[5][9] In the Italian dialects it is Lombard pols, Piedmontese puls and Ligurian polsu, and Friulian pons.^[10] In Old French the word also meant breath.^[10] De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to approach”).^[11]

The phrase tastare il polso is modelled on French tâter le pouls (1617).^[4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni's Vizi e Virtudi, before 1292, in Florentine, with the sense “pulse”: the rhythmic beat of the arteries driven by the heart, from which a person's health is judged.^[2][13] DELI's earliest example is in Brunetto Latini, before 1294.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used polso also for an artery or vein, and perdere i polsi for losing one's strength;^[2][6][12] Dante has both: ch'ella mi fa tremar le vene e i polsi (“for she makes my veins and pulses tremble”) and tanto ch'i' ne perde' li sonni e' polsi (“so that I lost my sleep and my strength over it”).^[2][6][12] The sense “wrist” appears in Boccaccio in 1353, and the figurative “strength of character, energy” in Matteo Villani before 1363.^[4] The TLIO also records the sense “power from social standing or wealth”.^[2]

The diminutive polsino, the cuff of a shirt, is recorded in Carena's dictionary of 1846.^[4] In Tuscany polso is also a cut of beef.^[14][6]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses polso for the pulse.^[2]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for the wrist.^[4]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses it for strength of character.^[4]
• 1617 – French tâter le pouls, the model of tastare il polso, is recorded.^[4]
• 1846 – Polsino is recorded in Carena.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The wrist, the joint between the hand and the forearm: Cadendo si è rotta il polso.^[6][15][14]
2. The pulse, the rhythmic dilation of the arteries caused by the heartbeat: Il medico le misurò il polso.^[6][15][13]
3. (literary, archaic) An artery or blood vessel.^[6][16][13]
4. (figurative) Firmness, authority, energy: un dirigente di polso, con polso fermo.^[6][13][14]
5. (figurative) The state of a situation: tastare il polso dell'economia.^[13]
6. The end of a sleeve; a cuff.^[6][14]
7. (Tuscany) A cut of beef.^[14][6]

Word family

• polsino
• polsare
• rimpolsare

Related words

• pulsare
• espellere
• Latin pulsus
• French pouls

Usage notes

Tastare il polso a qualcuno means to sound someone out.^[13][16] Orologio da polso is a wristwatch.^[14][16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana