the.com/revulsion

Disgust with a shove in it — your body backing away before your brain agrees.

means A strong feeling of disgust or repugnance, sharp enough that your whole body seems to recoil from it.

from From Latin revulsio, 'a pulling away,' built from re- ('back') plus vellere ('to pluck or tear'). It originally had a literal, almost medical sense of wrenching something away or diverting it forcibly — old physicians spoke of 'revulsion' when drawing blood or disease from one part of the body to another. Over time the pulling-away became internal and emotional: instead of yanking something out of the body, the word came to describe the body yanking itself away from something — the visceral recoil we now call disgust.

root meaning
from Latin revellere, to pull back violently
not just distaste
involves physical recoil, not mere dislike
survival wiring
evolved to steer us from rot, disease, decay
moral cousin
can target behavior, not just smells or sights
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