pullulate
pronunciation
How to pronounce pullulate in British English:
UK [ˈpʌljʊleɪt]
How to pronounce pullulate in American English:
US [ˈpʌljəˌlet]
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- Verb:
- be teeming, be abuzz
- move in large numbers
- produce buds, branches, or germinate
- become abundant; increase rapidly
- breed freely and abundantly
Word Origin
- pullulate
- pullulate: [17] The etymological notion underlying pullulate is of rapid ‘new growth’. It goes back ultimately to Latin pullus ‘young animal’, which also produced English pony and poultry and is distantly related to foal. From this was derived the verb pullulāre ‘grow, sprout’, whose past participle provided English with pullulate. This too originally meant ‘sprout’, a sense largely displaced since the 19th century by its metaphorical descendant ‘swarm, teem’.=> foal, pony, poultry, pullet
- pullulate (v.)
- 1610s, from Latin pullulatus, past participle of pullulare "put forth, grow, sprout, shoot up, come forth," from pullulus, diminutive of pullus "young animal" (see foal (n.)). Related: Pullulated; pullulating.