puissant

English

WOTD – 9 April 2006

Etymology

Borrowing 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”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpwɪs(ə)nt/, /ˈpjuːɪs(ə)nt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpjuəsənt/, /ˈpwɪsənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

puissant (comparative more puissant, superlative most puissant)

1. (archaic or literary) 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?

   • 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...

Translations

powerful, mighty

• Dutch: vermogend (nl), puissant (nl)
• Esperanto: potenca
• French: puissant (fr)

• Ido: povo (io), potenteso
• Polish: potężny (pl) m
• Russian: могу́щественный (ru) m (mogúščestvennyj)

Related terms

• puissance

Anagrams

• snapsuit

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French

Etymology

Old present participle of the verb pouvoir (formed with the stem puis-; compare the modern form pouvant), from Old French puissant, pussant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɥisɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

puissant (feminine singular puissante, masculine plural puissants, feminine plural puissantes)

1. powerful; mighty

Related terms

• pouvoir
• puissance

Further reading

• “puissant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Old French

Alternative forms

• poissant
• pussant

Etymology

From the present participle of pooir, povoir, formed with the stem puis- in conjugated forms of the verb.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɥisãnt/

Adjective

puissant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular puissant or puissante)

1. powerful; mighty

Declension

Declension of puissant

Number	Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Subject	puissanz	puissant	puissant
	Oblique	puissant	puissant	puissant
Plural	Subject	puissant	puissanz	puissant
	Oblique	puissanz	puissanz	puissant

Related terms

• puissance

Descendants

• English: puissant (borrowed)
• Middle French: puissant
  • French: puissant