revulsion

See also: révulsion

English

Etymology

Partly from Middle French révulsion and partly from Latin revulsiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvʌlʃən/, /ɹəˈvʌlʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧vul‧sion

Noun

revulsion (usually uncountable, plural revulsions)

1. Abhorrence, a sense of loathing, intense aversion, repugnance, repulsion, horror.
2. A sudden violent feeling of disgust.
3. (medicine) The treatment of one diseased area by acting elsewhere; counterirritation.
4. (obsolete) A strong pulling or drawing back; withdrawal.
   • c. 1670s (date written), Thomas Brown [i.e., Thomas Browne], “Sect[ion] X”, in John Jeffery, editor, Christian Morals, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] [A]t the University-Press, for Cornelius Crownfield printer to the University; and are to be sold by Mr. Knapton […]; and Mr. [John] Morphew […], published 1716, →OCLC, part III, page 91:

     To run on in deſpight of the Revulſions and Pul-backs of ſuch Remora’s aggravates our tranſgreſſions.

   • 1858, “Our Window”, in Emerson's Magazine and Putnam's Monthly, volume 6, page 329, column 1:

     The recent financial revulsion has revealed the feeble basis on which credit now stands, […]

5. (obsolete) A sudden reaction; a sudden and complete change of the feelings.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Result”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 234:

     We resolve, and our resolutions melt away with a word and a look: we are the toys of an emotion. And yet I think Norbourne was right in his sudden revulsion in favour of his uncle. We are rarely wrong when we act from impulse.

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, pages 108–109:

     A sudden and violent revulsion of feeling, both in the parliament and in the country, followed.

Translations

abhorrence, a sense of loathing, intense aversion, repugnance, repulsion, horror

• Finnish: inho (fi)
• Georgian: ზიზღი (zizɣi)
• German: Abscheu (de) m or f, Widerwille (de) m
• Italian: ripulsione f
• Plautdietsch: Jegrusel n
• Portuguese: revulsão f
• Russian: отвраще́ние (ru) n (otvraščénije)

sudden violent feeling of disgust

• Dutch: aversie (nl)
• Finnish: inho (fi)
• German: Ekel (de) m, Ekelgefühl (de) n
• Italian: ripulsione f
• Portuguese: revulsão f
• Russian: отвраще́ние (ru) n (otvraščénije)

treatment of one diseased area by acting elsewhere; counterirritation

• German: Ableitung (de) f, Revulsio f
• Italian: revulsione f
• Portuguese: revulsão f

See also

• revulsive