systole

Borrowed from New Latin, from Ancient Greek συστολή (sustolḗ), from συστέλλω (sustéllō, “to contract”), from σύν (sún, “together”) + στέλλω (stéllō, “to send”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪstəli/
• Homophone: sisterly (in non-rhotic accents)

systole (plural systoles)

1. (physiology) The rhythmic contraction of the heart, by which blood is driven through the arteries.
   • 1653, William Harvey, “The Causes which Mov’d the Author to Write”, in [anonymous], transl., The Anatomical Exercises of Dr. William Harvey […] Concerning the Motion of the Heart and Blood. […], London: […] Francis Leach, for Richard Lownes […], OCLC 12104823, pages 1–2:

     […] I did almoſt beleeve, that the motion of the Heart vvas knovvn to God alone: For neither could I rightly diſtinguiſh, vvhich vvay the Diaſtole and Systole came to be, nor vvhen nor vvhere the dilation and conſtriction had its exiſtence.

   • 1972, Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things, McGraw-Hill 1972, pp. 78-9:

     A double systole catapulted him into full consciousness again, and he promised his uncorrected self that he would limit his daily ration of cigarettes to a couple of heartbeats.

   • 1974, Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Testament:

     There is no essential virtue in comfort. To be relaxed is good if it is part of a process of systole and diastole. Relaxation comes between phases of tenseness.

2. (prosody) A shortening of a naturally long vowel.
3. (mathematics) The shortest noncontractible loop on a compact metric space.

• diastole

• (prosody): metaplasm

• asystole
• systolic

• tolseys, toyless, tyloses

From French systole, from Ancient Greek συστολή (sustolḗ), from συστέλλω (sustéllō, “to contract”).

• IPA^(key): /sɪsˈtoː.lə/

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systole f (plural systoles)

1. (physiology) systole

• diastole

Borrowed from New Latin, from Ancient Greek συστολή (sustolḗ), from συστέλλω (sustéllō, “to contract”), from σύν (sún, “together”) + στέλλω (stéllō, “to send”).

• IPA^(key): /sis.tɔl/

• Audio

  (file)

systole f (plural systoles)

1. (physiology) systole

   Antonym: diastole

• “systole”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.