pulsation

Meanings

1. The regular throbbing of the heart, an artery etc. in a living body; the pulse.
2. Any rhythmic beating, throbbing etc.
3. The rhythmic increase and decrease of size in naked zoospores and plasmodia.
4. Physical striking; a blow.
5. A single beat, throb or vibration.

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.