puissant
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Anglo-Norman puissant, pussant, et al., Middle French puissant, poissant, present participle of pooir (“to be able”), ultimately from Latin posse (“be able”).
Pronunciation [edit]
Adjective [edit]
puissant (comparative more puissant, superlative most puissant)
- Powerful, mighty, having authority.
- 1599 — Shakespeare, Hen V i 2
- Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, / And with your puissant arm renew their feats.
- 1667 — John Milton, Paradise Lost Book I
- 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?
- For who can yet believe, though after loss,
- 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Part I, Chapter V
- I cried in a loud voice, "Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!"
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 24
- How comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?
- 1961 - Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
- In fact the titles could be anything-or (with some of the most puissant) no title at all...
- 1599 — Shakespeare, Hen V i 2
Translations [edit]
powerful, mighty
Related terms [edit]
Anagrams [edit]
French [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From the verb pouvoir, from Latin potēns, potentis.
Pronunciation [edit]
Adjective [edit]
puissant m (feminine puissante, masculine plural puissants, feminine plural puissantes)
Related terms [edit]
Old French [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
- IPA: /pɥisãnt/
Adjective [edit]
puissant