pulsation

noun

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.”

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 […]”

3. The rhythmic increase and decrease of size in naked zoospores and plasmodia.
4. Physical striking; a blow.

   “By the Cornelian law, pulsation as well as verberation is prohibited.”

5. A single beat, throb or vibration.