palp
English edit
Etymology edit
- (verb): From French palper.
- (noun): From New Latin palpus (“a feeler”).
- Both ultimately from Latin palpō (“to stroke, touch softly, feel”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
- (zoology) Synonym of pedipalp.
- 2015, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time, Pan Books (2016), page 20:
- Below her formidable eyes her fangs are flanked by limb-like mouthparts: her palps, coloured a startling white like a quivering moustache.
Translations edit
zoology: appendage — see pedipalp
Noun edit
palp (countable and uncountable, plural palps)
- A fleshy part of a fingertip.
- Synonym: pulp
- 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
- He folded his razor neatly and with stroking palps of fingers felt the smooth skin.
- 1964, K. B. Gilden, Hurry Sundown:
- The palps of her fingers itched, thickened, erected with the need to touch the bent head. Plunge into the dust-moted rough blackness of his hair, smooth back downward over the deep-brown nape of his neck.
- 1984, W. Boyd, Stars & Bars, i.i.11:
- With the palp of a forefinger he squeezed moisture from his wiry blond eyebrows.
- 1998, Renny Christopher, Linda Strom, Lisa Orr, Working Class Studies: 1 & 2, Feminist Press at CUNY, →ISBN, page 165:
- When Mariuchi caresses the plant, for example, sensuously emitting from the palps of her fingers, a siren song.
- 2008, John Gardner, Mickelsson's Ghosts, New Directions Publishing, →ISBN, page 130:
- He tested the blade against the palp of his thumb, then returned to the living room and decisively, scrape by scrape, cut away the hex sign, leaving a halo of ragged wood.
- 2012, Sean Stewart, Star Wars: Dark Rendezvous, Random House, →ISBN:
- The bag seethed in her hand, not unpleasantly, as computational monofilaments shifted and flowed under her touch until they cradled the palps of her fingers.
- (medicine, uncountable, colloquial) Short for palpation.
- pain on palp
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
fleshy part of fingertip — see finger pad
palpation — see palpation
Verb edit
palp (third-person singular simple present palps, present participle palping, simple past and past participle palped)
- To feel, to explore by touch.
- 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 729:
- It is not possible to examine a male patient without making him undress and actually palping him all over.
Translations edit
to explore by touch
Adjective edit
palp (not comparable)
- (medicine, colloquial) Palpatory; obtained by palpation.
- palp blood pressure
Related terms edit
Further reading edit
- “palp”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “palp”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “palp”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams edit
Romanian edit
Noun edit
palp m (plural palpi)
- Alternative form of palpă