puissant
adjUK /ˈpwɪs(ə)nt/ · US /ˈpjuəsənt/
Etymology From Middle English puissaunt, from Middle French puissant, poissant, Anglo-Norman puissant, Old French pussant, et al., present participle of pooir (“to be able”), ultimately from Latin posse (“be able”).
- Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, / And with your puissant arm renew their feats.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- For who can yet believe, though after loss, That all these puissant legions, whose exile Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend, Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
4 more examples
- I cried in a loud voice, "Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!"1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):
- How comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 24, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- ‘O noble breast and all-puissant arms, Am I the cause, I the poor cause that men Reproach you, saying all your force is gone?1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 5:
- The "electrics" are at their most puissant where steam locomotives nowadays seem at their weakest, in starting away.1960 April 23, O. S. Nock, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 265:
- Derived terms
- puissantly, puissantness
- Related terms
- puissance