impuissant

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 13, 2008 is: impuissant • \im-PWISS-unt\  • adjective : weak, powerless Examples: Jonah was a relentless bully who sought to intimidate any impuissant student that he could find in the schoolyard. Did you know? Both the adjective "impuissant" and the noun "impuissance" came to English from Middle French. They are derived from the prefix "in-" (meaning "not") and the noun "puissance," which means "power" and is a word in English in its own right. "Puissance" derives from the verb "poer," meaning "to be able" or "to be powerful," and is ultimately related to the same Latin roots that gave us words such as "power" and "potent." While both "puissant" and "impuissance" first appeared in English during the 15th century, "impuissant" did not make its first appearance in our language until 1629. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.