palp

Etymology

* (verb): From French palper. * (noun): From New Latin palpus (“a feeler”). * Both ultimately from Latin palpō (“to stroke, touch softly, feel”).

noun

1. (zoology) Synonym of pedipalp.
   Below her formidable eyes her fangs are flanked by limb-like mouthparts: her palps, coloured a startling white like a quivering moustache. 2015, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time, Pan Books (2016), page 20

noun

1. A fleshy part of a fingertip.
   The palps of her fingers itched, thickened, erected with the need to touch the bent head. Plunge into the dust-moted rough blackness of his hair, smooth back downward over the deep-brown nape of his neck. 1964, K. B. Gilden, Hurry Sundown
   With the palp of a forefinger he squeezed moisture from his wiry blond eyebrows. 1984, W. Boyd, Stars & Bars, i.i.11
   When Mariuchi caresses the plant, for example, sensuously emitting from the palps of her fingers, a siren song. 1998, Renny Christopher, Linda Strom, Lisa Orr, Working Class Studies: 1 & 2, Feminist Press at CUNY, page 165
   He tested the blade against the palp of his thumb, then returned to the living room and decisively, scrape by scrape, cut away the hex sign, leaving a halo of ragged wood. 2008, John Gardner, Mickelsson's Ghosts, New Directions Publishing, page 130
   The bag seethed in her hand, not unpleasantly, as computational monofilaments shifted and flowed under her touch until they cradled the palps of her fingers. 2012, Sean Stewart, Star Wars: Dark Rendezvous, Random House
2. (medicine, uncountable, colloquial) Short for palpation.
   pain on palp

verb

1. To feel, to explore by touch.
   It is not possible to examine a male patient without making him undress and actually palping him all over. 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 729

adj

1. (medicine, colloquial) Palpatory; obtained by palpation.
   palp blood pressure