英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

powdery (adj.)[powdery 词源字典]: early 15c., from powder (n.) + -y (2).[powdery etymology, powdery origin, 英语词源]
power (n.): c. 1300, "ability; ability to act or do; strength, vigor, might," especially in battle; "efficacy; control, mastery, lordship, dominion; legal power or authority; authorization; military force, an army," from Anglo-French pouair, Old French povoir, noun use of the infinitive, "to be able," earlier podir (9c.), from Vulgar Latin *potere, from Latin potis "powerful" (see potent).
Whatever some hypocritical ministers of government may say about it, power is the greatest of all pleasures. It seems to me that only love can beat it, and love is a happy illness that can't be picked up as easily as a Ministry. [Stendhal "de l'Amour," 1822]
Meaning "one who has power" is late 14c. Meaning "specific ability or capacity" is from early 15c. Meaning "a state or nation with regard to international authority or influence" [OED] is from 1726. Used for "a large number of" from 1660s. Meaning "energy available for work is from 1727. Sense of "electrical supply" is from 1896.

Phrase the powers that be is from Rom. xiii:1. As a statement wishing good luck, more power to (someone) is recorded from 1842. A power play in ice hockey so called by 1940. Power failure is from 1911; power steering from 1921.
power (v.): "to supply with power," 1898, from power (n.). Earlier it meant "make powerful" (1530s). Related: Powered; powering.
power-broker (n.): 1961, apparently coined by T.H. White in reference to the 1960 U.S. presidential election; from power (n.) + broker (n.).
powerful (adj.): c. 1400, from power (n.) + -ful. Meaning "of great quality or number" is from 1811; colloquial sense of "exceedingly" (adv.) is from 1822. Related: Powerfully. Thornton ("American Glossary") notes powerful as "Much used by common people in the sense of very," along with monstrous and cites curious expressions such as devilish good, monstrous pretty (1799), dreadful polite, cruel pretty, abominable fine (1803), "or when a young lady admires a lap dog for being so vastly small and declares him prodigious handsome" (1799).
powerhouse (n.): 1873, "building where power is generated," from power (n.) + house (n.). Figurative sense is from 1913.
powerless (adj.): early 15c., "lacking might or fortitude," from power (n.) + -less. Related: Powerlessly; powerlessness.
PowerPoint (n.): Microsoft computer slide show program, 1987.
powwow (n.): 1620s, "priest, sorcerer," from a southern New England Algonquian language (probably Narragansett) powwaw "shaman, medicine man, Indian priest," from a verb meaning "to use divination, to dream," from Proto-Algonquian *pawe:wa "he dreams, one who dreams." Meaning "magical ceremony among North American Indians" is recorded from 1660s. Sense of "council, conference, meeting" is first recorded 1812. Verb sense of "to confer, discuss" is attested from 1780.
pox (n.): late 15c., spelling alteration of pockes, plural of pocke (see pock (n.)). Especially (after c. 1500) of syphilis.
poxy (adj.): 1853 in literal sense, from pox + -y (2). As a deprecatory adjective, attested in English dialects by 1899.
poy (n.): pole used to propel a boat, late 15c., of unknown origin.
ppm: abbreviation of parts per million, attested by 1913.
PR (n.): also p.r.; 1942, abbreviation of public relations (see public).
practic (n.): late 14c., "a way of doing something, method; practice, custom, usage;" also "an applied science;" from Old French practique "practice, usage" (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin practica "practice, practical knowledge," ultimately from Greek praktike "practical" (as opposed to "theoretical;" see practical). From early 15c. as "practical aspect or application of something; practice as opposed to theory;" also, "knowledge of the practical aspect of something, practical experience."
practicable (adj.): 1670s, from Middle French pratiquable (1590s), from pratiquer "to practice," from Medieval Latin practicare "to practice" (see practical). Related: practicableness (1640s).
practical (adj.): early 15c., practicale "of or pertaining to matters of practice; applied," with -al (1) + earlier practic (adj.) "dealing with practical matters, applied, not merely theoretical" (early 15c.), or practic (n.) "method, practice, use" (late 14c.). In some cases directly from Old French practique (adj.) "fit for action," earlier pratique (13c.) and Medieval Latin practicalis, from Late Latin practicus "practical, active," from Greek praktikos "fit for action, fit for business; business-like, practical; active, effective, vigorous," from praktos "done; to be done," verbal adjective of prassein, prattein "to do, act, effect, accomplish."
practicality (n.): 1809, from practical + -ity. Related: Practicalities.
practically (adv.): 1620s, "in a practical manner," from practical + -ly (2). Meaning "for practical purposes, as good as" is from 1748; loosened sense of "almost" is from 1869.
practice (v.): c. 1400, "to do, act;" early 15c., "to follow or employ; to carry on a profession," especially medicine, from Old French pratiser, practiser "to practice," alteration of practiquer, from Medieval Latin practicare "to do, perform, practice," from Late Latin practicus "practical," from Greek praktikos "practical" (see practical).

From early 15c. as "to perform repeatedly to acquire skill, to learn by repeated performance;" mid-15c. as "to perform, to work at, exercise." Related: Practiced; practicing.