English

Noun

Puissance ‎(countable and uncountable, plural Puissances)

1. (equestrianism) Alternative letter-case form of puissance.

English

German equestrian Otto Ammermann and his horse Servus competing in a puissance event (sense 2) in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, Germany, in September 1965

Alternative forms

• Puissance (show jumping)

Noun

puissance ‎(countable and uncountable, plural puissances)

1. Power, might or potency.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.12:

     We easily pronounce puissance, truth and justice; they be words importing some great matter, but that thing we neither see nor conceive.

   • 1824, J[ohn] Johnson, “74. The same [i.e., The Ordynarye of Crysten Men]. Emprynted in the cyte of London in the Flete strete in the sygne of y^e sonne by Wynkyn de Worde y^e yere our lorde m.ccccc.vj. Quarto.”, in Typographia, or The Printers' Instructor: Including an Account of the Origin of Printing, with Biographical Notices of the Printers of England, from Caxton to the Close of the Sixteenth Century: A Series of Ancient and Modern Alphabets, and Domesday Characters. Together with an Elucidation of Every Subject Connected with the Art, volume I, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, Paternoster Row, OCLC 825216509, page 255:

     After these things above said, the Priest exorcised the salt, saying thus: I conjure thee, creature of salt; that is to say, I conjure in thee the puissance of the Devil in ****, in the name of God Father omnipotent, and in the charity of our Lord Jesu Christ, and in the virtue of the Holy Ghost […]

   • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho: Unreliable Memoirs. Vol. IV, London: Picador, ISBN 978-0-330-48128-1; republished London: Picador, 2007, ISBN 978-0-330-48127-4, page 66:

     Any impression of mental puissance might have been increased by the fact that I was usually to be seen working hard with notebook and biro, shaping up a new book review or a linking script […].

2. (equestrianism) Often Puissance: the high-jump component of the sport of show jumping.
   • 1969, G. H. S. Webber, Show Jumping International, London: Evans Brothers; New York, N.Y.: Van Nostrand Reinhold, OCLC 34114, page 126:

     It was in Dublin that San Lucas scored his first success in what has become something of a speciality for him, the puissance.

   • 2011 April, Stuart Turner, Harnessing Horsepower: The Pat Moss Carlsson Story, Poundbury, Dorset: Veloce Publishing, ISBN 978-1-845843-06-9, page 23:

     Pat [Moss] then went to Oxford to qualify for the Horse of the Year Show, and Danny was fourth in the Puissance, an event with very high jumps.

   • 2013, Hilary M. Clayton; P. René van Weeren, “Performance in Equestrian Sports”, in Willem Back and Hilary M. Clayton, editors, Equine Locomotion, 2nd edition, Edinburgh; New York, N.Y.: Saunders, ISBN 978-0-7020-2950-9, page 332:

     In a study of horses during a puissance competition that started at a height of 1.80 m and ended in the last round at 2.27 m, success was significantly positively correlated with the following variables at lift-off: vertical velocity of CM, height of CM, distance of CM from the fence; and was significantly negatively correlated with the distance of the leading hind limb to the CM.

Translations

French

Etymology

From puissant (Middle French puissance, Old French puissant).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɥi.sɑ̃s/

Noun

puissance f ‎(plural puissances)

1. power (physical or figuratively)
2. dominion (state within the British Empire)

See also

• pouvoir
• puissant

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French puissance.

Noun

puissance f (plural puissances)

1. power

Descendants

• French: puissance

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From puissant, pussant.

Noun

puissance f ‎(oblique plural puissances, nominative singular puissance, nominative plural puissances)

1. power; ability; authority
2. might; strength

Descendants

• English: puissance (borrowed through Anglo-Norman)
• Middle French: puissance
  • French: puissance