Percuss
/pəˈkʌs/noun
To strike or tap repeatedly, especially during a medical examination.
Did you know?In medicine, percussion became a diagnostic technique in the eighteenth century: physicians tapped the body and interpreted the resulting sounds to detect hidden disease.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kweh₂-
“To strike, cut, or hew; a reconstructed root associated with forceful blows.”
Classical Latin
Latin
percutere
“To strike through, pierce, beat, or smite; formed from per- (“through”) and quatere (“to shake or strike”).”
Late Latin
Latin
percussus
“Struck or beaten; the past participle of percutere.”
15th Century
English
percuss
“To strike or beat; adopted as a learned borrowing from Latin.”
18th Century
Medical English
percuss
“To tap the body as a diagnostic method, especially to distinguish sounds produced by underlying organs.”
Modern English
English
percuss
“To strike or tap repeatedly, particularly in physical examination or musical contexts.”
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