Puissance
/ˈpjuːɪsəns/noun
Power, strength, or ability, especially in a formal or literary sense.
Did you know?Puissance entered English through Anglo-French, and its deeper ancestry is the same Latin root *potis*/*posse* that built a whole family of words about power, ability, and possibility.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*potis
“able, powerful, master of”
Latin
Latin
potis
“able, having power”
Late Latin
Latin
posse
“to be able”
Old French
Old French
puissance
“power, might, force”
Middle English
English
puissance
“power, authority, prowess”
Modern English
English
puissance
“power, strength, or ability”