Pulp
/pʌlp/noun
A soft, moist, shapeless mass; the soft tissue inside a tooth; or the fibrous material used to make paper.
Did you know?In Latin, the ancestor of English pulp, pulpā, referred to soft flesh or flesh-like pulp, which is why the word still carries that unsettling sense of something reduced to raw, shapeless matter.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*pel-
“to beat, strike, or pound”
Latin
Latin
pulpā
“soft flesh, pulp, fleshy part”
Late Latin
Latin
pulpa
“flesh, pulp”
Old French
Old French
pulpe
“pulp, soft flesh”
Middle English
English
pulpe
“soft, fleshy substance”
Modern English
English
pulp
“a soft, moist, shapeless mass; the fibrous material used in paper-making”