Pulsacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A regular rhythmic beating or throbbing, especially of the blood felt through the arteries
2. The steady recurring throb of a beat, such as the rhythmic pounding of the heart or pulse
3. An archaic term for a rhythmic beating motion, particularly the regular throbbing of the pulse

Etymology: "Pulsacioun" is a Middle English spelling of the word we now write as "pulsation," and it appears in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer's contemporaries as well as in medieval medical writing, where it referred to the beating of the heart and arteries. Its Latin ancestor "pulsatio" came from "pulsare," meaning to beat or knock, the frequentative form of "pellere," to drive or push. The English word entered the language by way of Old French "pulsacion" and directly from Latin, and the spelling shifted over the centuries as scribes and printers regularized it. The "-ioun" ending in the Middle English form reflects the French-influenced pronunciation of the suffix "-tion," a pattern shared by many words of the same period. The root meaning of pushing or striking gives the word its sense of a repeated, rhythmic impact. A pulse is a series of such blows, whether the knock of a heart or the regular throb of a machine, and the word carried that same physical idea from medieval anatomy into modern science.