pulsation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French pulsacion, and its source, Latin pulsātiō (“a beating or striking”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pʌlˈseɪʃn̩/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /pəlˈseɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

pulsation (countable and uncountable, plural pulsations)

1. 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.

2. 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 […]

3. (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.

4. A single beat, throb or vibration. [from 19th c.]

Translations

regular throbbing of the heart

• Arabic: نَبْض m (nabḍ), نَبْضُ القَلْب m (nabḍu l-qalb)
• Bulgarian: туптене (bg) n (tuptene), пулс (bg) m (puls)
• Portuguese: pulsação (pt) f

Anagrams

• platinous

French

Etymology

From Latin pulsātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

pulsation f (plural pulsations)

1. pulsation

Further reading

• “pulsation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.