# puissant
## English
### 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: /ˈpwiːsənt/
* (US) IPA: /ˈpjuəsənt/, /ˈpwɪsənt/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Adjective

puissant (comparative more puissant, superlative most puissant)
* (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
### 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: /pɥi.sɑ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

puissant (feminine puissante, masculine plural puissants, feminine plural puissantes)
* 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: /pyi̯ˈsãnt/

### Adjective

puissant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular puissant or puissante)
* powerful; mighty

#### Related terms

* puissance

#### Descendants

* → English: puissant
* Middle French: puissant
** French: puissant