puissant

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 7, 2008 is: puissant • \PWISS-unt\ • adj : of great force or vigor : strong, powerful Examples: Laurie was aware of the restaurant critic's puissant influence in the industry, so she became quite nervous when she spotted him sitting at a table in her café. Did you know? "Puissant" has some powerful ties to some more commonplace English words. Although "puissant" has a considerably fancier feel than "power" and "potent," all three words share the same Latin ancestor: "posse," a verb meaning "to be able." "Power" came to us by way of Anglo-French "poer," which is itself thought to have come from "potēre," a Vulgar Latin alteration of "posse." "Potent" came from "potent-, potens," a present participle of "posse." From "poer" came the adjective "pussant," meaning "able" or "powerful" in Anglo-French, and English speakers borrowed that to form "puissant" in the 15th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.