pulsation
nounUK /pʌlˈseɪʃn̩/ · US /pəlˈseɪʃən/
Etymology Inherited from Middle English pulsacioun (“pulsing of the blood, throbbing”), 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)”). By surface analysis, pulsate + -ion.
1
The regular throbbing of the heart, an artery etc. in a living body; the pulse.
- Pulsation had ceased. For three days the body was preserved unburied, during which it had acquired a stony rigidity.1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial:
2
Any rhythmic beating, throbbing etc.
- 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 […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
4
Archaic Physical striking; a blow.
- By the Cornelian law, pulsation as well as verberation is prohibited.1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
5
A single beat, throb or vibration.
- Derived terms
- counterpulsation, electropulsation, micropulsation, pulsational