bodybeat

English

Etymology

body +‎ beat

Noun

bodybeat (plural bodybeats)

1. (chiefly poetic) One's natural biological rhythm, such as a heartbeat or the cadence of one's breathing.
   • 1991, Eugene Redmond, The Eye in the Ceiling: Poems, page 81:

     Rap-tap! drums of inundation, of syncopation And a bodybeat / an ideo-beep in ideophone / A drivinghome, a drive-suite Against the eternal mattress / the clay carpet Of eternal rhythm / of divine rhyme Flowing from feet / street Into sacred fingers

   • 1996, David Chagall, Surviving the Media Jungle, page 4:

     Consider the effects of simple rhythm and "bodybeat sounds" on newborn infants.

   • 2013, Erica Jong, Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected:

     Never mind, she is me, you— tied to that bodybeat, fainting on the rack of blood, moving to the metronome- –empty, empty, empty.

   • 2019, Fannie Hurst, Star-Dust: A Story of an American Girl:

     They spied her out even ass she spied them, and, bodybeat to bodybeat, she and her mother met, shaking to silent sobs and twisting hearts.

   • 2019, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, David Mogo Godhunter:

     She takes me through her own bodybeats, showing me how she channels them into her arms and voice and weaves them into charms.

Verb

bodybeat (third-person singular simple present bodybeats, present participle bodybeating, simple past and past participle bodybeated)

1. (by a gorilla) To beat or pound one's body with the fists.
   • 2006, Simone Pika, Katja Liebal, “Differences and Similarities between the Natural Gestural Communication of the Great Apes and Human Children”, in Angelo Cangelosi, ‎Andrew D M Smith, ‎Kenny Smith, editor, Evolution Of Language, page 269:

     the same gesture for several goals (touch for nursing and riding) or different gestures for the same goal (slap ground and bodybeat for play)

   • 2020, Josep Call, ‎Michael Tomasello, The Gestural Communication of Apes and Monkeys, page v:

     Ogden and Schildkraut (1991) mention in their compilation of gorilla ethograms several auditory gestures such as backhand pound, bodybeat, chestbeat, chestpat, clap, knock, and slap surface; tactile gestures such as brush, nudge, poke, push, tag, and touch with hand; and visual gestures such as armcross, arm shake, armswing, extended palm, foot back, head shake, head turn, head twirl, and pat.

   • 2014, Vyvyan Evans, The Language Myth: Why Language Is Not an Instinct, page 38:

     Similarly, different gestures can be used for the same goal: slapping the ground and bodybeating for play.