pulsation

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English pulsacioun (“pulsing of the blood, throbbing”),^[1] borrowed from Middle French pulsacion (“(of bells) a striking (end of 14th c.); (of a diseased part of the body) a throbbing (1377); pulsation (1575)”), and its source, Latin pulsātiō (“(classical Latin) a beating or striking; (Medieval Latin, medical) rhythmical expansion and contraction (1363 in Chauliac)”).^[2] By surface analysis, pulsate +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /pʌlˈseɪʃn̩/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(US) IPA^(key): /pəlˈseɪʃən/
Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

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], “Canto XII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
  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 […]
(botany) The rhythmic increase and decrease of size in naked zoospores and plasmodia.
(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.]