puissant

English

WOTD – 9 April 2006

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”).

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 (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]:

     Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, / And with your puissant arm renew their feats.

   • 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:

     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 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):

     I cried in a loud voice, "Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!"

   • 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:

     How comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 5:

     ‘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?

   • 1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC:

     In fact the titles could be anything-or (with some of the most puissant) no title at all...

Related terms

• puissance

Translations

powerful, mighty

• Dutch: vermogend (nl), puissant (nl)
• Esperanto: potenca
• French: puissant (fr)
• Ido: povo (io), potenteso (io)
• Polish: potężny (pl) m
• Russian: могу́щественный (ru) m (mogúščestvennyj)

Anagrams

• snapsuit, uitspans

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): /pɥi.sɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

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

1. powerful; mighty

Related terms

• pouvoir
• puissance

Further reading

• “puissant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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): /pyi̯ˈsãnt/

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
• Middle French: puissant
  • French: puissant