ETYMOLOGY
from Latin perculs-, past participial sterm of percellere (to upset, strike with consternation) + -ive
EXAMPLE
“… But grant that ONELY bee an alleuiating particle, yet it is so by comparison: and so is an OATH, a tryall of more ease, both to body and minde then are those other meanes by Rackes and tortures (vsuall in the Inquisition:) for as the peines are vnsufferable to flesh and blood, so haue they a very perculsiue force euen vpon the Soule, Nam & innocentes cogit mentiri door, saith the Stoicke, because in so many streights, of terrour, payne, hope, feare, nihil veritati loci relinquitur, as the Orator well obserued, (let Aelian speake of the Egyptians courage or insensiblenes what he will): men will say any thing (though most vnture) for ease and release from such pangs. …”
From: An Answer to a Catholike English-man
By William Barlow, 1609
Lexicophilia 