[os-uh-leyt] 
verb, -lat⋅ed, -lat⋅ing.| 1. | to swing or move to and fro, as a pendulum does. |
| 2. | to vary or vacillate between differing beliefs, opinions, conditions, etc.: He oscillates regularly between elation and despair. |
| 3. | Physics. to have, produce, or generate oscillations. |
| 4. | Mathematics. (of a function, sequence, etc.) to tend to no limit, including infinity: The sequence 0, 1, 0, 1, … oscillates. |
| 5. | to cause to move to and fro; vibrate. |
| os·cil·late (ŏs'ə-lāt') intr.v. os·cil·lat·ed, os·cil·lat·ing, os·cil·lates
[Latin ōscillāre, ōscillāt-, from ōscillum, swing, probably from ōscillum, small mask of Bacchus, diminutive of ōs, mouth; see ōs- in Indo-European roots.] os'cil·la'tor n., os'cil·la·to'ry (-lə-tôr'ē, -tōr'ē) adj. Word History: The rather dry word oscillate may become a bit less dry when we learn its story. It is possible that it goes back to the Latin word ōscillum, a diminutive of ōs, "mouth," meaning "small mouth." In a passage in the Georgics, Virgil applies the word to a small mask of Bacchus hung from trees to move back and forth in the breeze. From this word ōscillum may have come another word ōscillum, meaning "something, such as a swing, that moves up and down or back and forth." And this ōscillum was the source of the verb ōscillāre, "to ride in a swing," and the noun (from the verb) ōscillātiō, "the action of swinging or oscillating." The words have given us, respectively, our verb oscillate, first recorded in 1726, and our noun oscillation, first recorded in 1658. The next time one sees something oscillating, one might think of that small mask of Bacchus swinging from a pine tree in the Roman countryside. |
oscillate os·cil·late (ŏs'ə-lāt')
v. os·cil·lat·ed, os·cil·lat·ing, os·cil·lates
To swing back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm.
To vary between alternate extremes, usually within a definable period of time.
əˌleɪt