perisystole en · NOUN
Etymology
From peri- + systole.
Meanings
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(uncountable) The brief interval between the diastole and systole of the heart.
And so, borrowing cards of membership of the Lanchap Turf Club, they had gone, the four of them, to sit in a dilatation of hope, a contraction of despair, a perisystole of speculation.
1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 127: