puissant (French)
Where does "puissant" come from?
The French adjective 'puissant', meaning 'powerful' or 'mighty', originated as an old present participle of the verb 'pouvoir' ('to be able')[1]. It was inherited from the Old French 'puissant' or 'pussant'[1], which was formed using the verb stem 'puis-' found in certain conjugated forms[1][2]. That verb traces back through Old French 'pooir' or 'povoir'[2] to Vulgar Latin 'potēre', derived ultimately from the classical Latin verb 'posse'[3].
Open questions
- The intermediate Vulgar Latin verb 'potēre' is an unattested, reconstructed spoken form developed from classical Latin 'posse'. [3]
Full etymology tree
- puissant (French), 'powerful; mighty'
- inherited puissant (Old French), 'powerful; mighty'
- deverbal pooir (Old French), 'can; to be able to'
- derived potere (Latin), 'second-person singular present passive subjunctive of pōtō'
- derived posse (Latin), 'present active infinitive of possum (“to be able (to)”)'
- derived potere (Latin), 'second-person singular present passive subjunctive of pōtō'
- deverbal pooir (Old French), 'can; to be able to'
- inherited puissant (Old French), 'powerful; mighty'
Ancestors
- puissant (Old French)
Sources
Updated September 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris