puissant

Borrowed 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”).

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

puissant (comparative more puissant, superlative most puissant)

1. (archaic or literary) Powerful, mighty, having authority.
   • 1599 — William 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 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], chapter V, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, […], OCLC 995220039, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

     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...

• puissance

• snapsuit

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

• IPA^(key): /pɥi.sɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

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

1. powerful; mighty

• pouvoir
• puissance

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

• poissant
• pussant

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

• IPA^(key): /pyj.sãnt/

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

1. powerful; mighty

• puissance

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