pulsation
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Middle French pulsacion, and its source, Latin pulsātiō (“a beating or striking”).
Pronunciation edit
- (UK) IPA(key): /pʌlˈseɪʃn̩/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /pəlˈseɪʃən/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Noun edit
pulsation (countable and uncountable, plural pulsations)
- The regular throbbing of the heart, an artery etc. in a living body; the pulse. [from 15th c.]
- 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial:
- Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.
- Any rhythmic beating, throbbing etc. [from 17th c.]
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XII:
- Lo! as a dove when up she springs
To bear thro’ Heaven a tale of woe,
Some dolorous message knit below
The wild pulsation of her wings;
Like her I go; I cannot stay;
I leave this mortal ark behind […]
- (now rare) Physical striking; a blow. [from 17th c.]
- 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
- By the Cornelian law, pulsation as well as verberation is prohibited.
- A single beat, throb or vibration. [from 19th c.]
Translations edit
regular throbbing of the heart
Anagrams edit
French edit
Etymology edit
From Latin pulsātiōnem.
Pronunciation edit
Audio (file)
Noun edit
pulsation f (plural pulsations)
Further reading edit
- “pulsation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.