pouls French · revision 15945

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1155, Wace|origins=la pellō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /pu/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''pouls''' ''m'' (invariable)^(Wiktionary)

+ [[fro|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''.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|pulz]], [[inh|la|pulsus|t=push, blow]], used in medicine in “pulsus venarum, pulsus arteriarum” “the beating of the veins, of the arteries”,^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|9, 560b) the action noun of [[la|pellō|t=to push, drive]] (see [[pousser]] and [[pulsion]]).^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ Compare [[pro|pols]], [[es|pulso]] and [[it|polso]].^(Littré 1873)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Wace's ''Brut'' (about 1155) has ''tasta al pulz'', he felt the pulse: the beating of the arteries.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==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''.^(DHLF 1992) 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).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(BHVF) In 1618 d'Aubigné also uses ''le poux inesgal de ceux qui conseilloyent'' for the state of mind of a group.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) ''Prendre le pouls'' is recorded in 1864, and medicine added ''pouls veineux'' (1823).^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1155 – ''Pulz'' in Wace.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1225 – Figurative ''taster le pous''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1549 – The spelling ''pouls''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1608 – ''Se tâter le pouls'' in Régnier.^(TLFi)

+ * 1619 – ''Tâter le pouls'' “to sound out”, in d'Aubigné.^(TLFi)

+ * 1823 – ''Pouls veineux''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1864 – ''Prendre le pouls''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|pulse]]: ''prendre le pouls'', ''pouls rapide''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Tâter le pouls à qqn, de qqch.'': to sound someone out, gauge the mood of something.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pousser]]

+ * [[pulsion]]

+ * [[pulsation]]

+ * [[la|pulsus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}