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