horsepower
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From horse + power: the unit was originally defined as the amount of power that a horse could provide.
Both non-metric and metric units of power were derived from effectively identical measurements of the power a draught horse could sustain over several hours, with the difference in watts solely due to different rounding errors to express that power in round numbers in the original non-SI units (ft·lbf/min and kgf⋅m/s respectively).
Base: horse
Inflected forms:
form: horsepowers
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: horsepower
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Power derived from the motion of a horse.
pos: noun
tags: literally
uncountable
examples: Shillibeer's bus came in 1829 drawn by three horses. Later two horses were found sufficient to pull these closed wagonettes, which eventually had outside seats, and later on the substitution of a motor for horsepower.
The Sun Inn is an attractive black-and-white building, and has an old mounting block outside as a reminder of the days when horsepower meant four legs and a saddle.
The wheel was to have been turned by horsepower, but it was adapted to be driven by a mill-wheel on the river Derwent […]
gloss: A nonmetric unit of power with various definitions, commonly the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 745.7 watts.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Equally I can stand in a station like Lucerne in Switzerland, and watch with ill-concealed admiration the majestic entry of one of the latest Gotthard "Ae 6/6" electrics, packing 6,000 horsepower within its 60 ft. of length and 121 tons of weight, with its sleek dark green sides and handsome stainless steel bands and front wings.
As Quincy recovered from our one-block adrenaline burst, I gunned all 700 horsepower once more. Even with the pedal to the metal, the Exelero's sheer bulk caused a multisecond lag from the twin-turbo-charged V12's wind-up to actual launch.
In the past, before the widespread adoption of SI units, the work that engines were capable of doing was compared with the work that horses could do – hence the term ‘horsepower’. Various people came up with various equivalencies, but the modern agreed definition is that 1 horsepower is 746 joules per second or 746 watts.
gloss: Metric horsepower, a metric unit approximately equal to 735.5 watts.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Strength, performance capability, specs, or similar.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
uncountable
examples: political horsepower
My patron who sent this to me to do a whole video on, you know, Convergence or whatever, being able to use this as a desktop, uh, replacement, or at least a desktop type thing, it’s impossible for me, I can’t do it, this device just doesn’t have that type of horsepower even to run itself, let alone actually run desktop Linux, it just can’t do it, I haven’t figured out how to do it.
Derived words: brake horsepower
equivalent shaft horsepower
horsepower-hour
hydraulic horsepower
mechanical horsepower
metric horsepower
shaft horsepower
tax horsepower
thermal horsepower
Translations:
lang: Belarusian
word: ко́нская сі́ла
roman: kónskaja síla
lang: Bulgarian
word: ко́нска си́ла
roman: kónska síla
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 馬力 /马力
roman: mǎlì
lang: Chuvash
word: лаша вӑйӗ
roman: laš̬a văjĕ
lang: Czech
word: koňská síla
lang: Danish
word: hestekraft
lang: Dutch
word: (mechanische) paardenkracht
lang: Esperanto
word: ĉevalpovo
lang: Estonian
word: hobujõud
lang: Faroese
word: hestakraft
lang: Finnish
word: hevosvoima
lang: Georgian
word: ცხენის ძალა
roman: cxenis ʒala
lang: German
word: Pferdestärke
lang: Hungarian
word: (gépi) lóerő
lang: Indonesian
word: tenaga kuda
lang: Indonesian
word: daya kuda
lang: Irish
word: each-chumhacht
lang: Italian
word: cavallo vapore
lang: Japanese
word: 馬力
roman: bariki
lang: Khmer
word: ហយពល
roman: haʼyĕəʼpŭəl
lang: Khmer
word: អស្វឫទ្ធិ
roman: ʼahsvaʼrɨt
lang: Korean
word: 마력
roman: maryeok
lang: Latvian
word: zirgspēks
lang: Lithuanian
word: arklio galia
lang: Macedonian
word: коњска сила
roman: konjska sila
lang: Malay
word: kuasa kuda
lang: Malayalam
word: കുതിരശക്തി
roman: kutiraśakti
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: hestekraft
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: hestekraft
lang: Plautdietsch
word: Pieetskrauft
lang: Polish
word: koń parowy
lang: Portuguese
word: cavalo-vapor
lang: Romanian
word: cal-putere
lang: Russian
word: лошади́ная си́ла
roman: lošadínaja síla
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: коњска снага
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: konjska snaga
lang: Slovak
word: konská sila
lang: Slovene
word: konjska moč
lang: Spanish
word: caballo de vapor
lang: Spanish
word: caballo de fuerza
lang: Spanish
word: caballo de potencia
lang: Swedish
word: hästkraft
lang: Tagalog
word: kabalyo
lang: Thai
word: แรงม้า
roman: rɛɛng-máa
lang: Ukrainian
word: кі́нська си́ла
roman: kínsʹka sýla
lang: Vietnamese
word: mã lực
lang: Welsh
word: marchnerth
lang: Yakut
word: ат күүһэ
roman: at küühe