different between power vs brawn

English

Alternative forms

• powre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin *pot?re, from Latin possum, posse (“to be able”); see potent. Compare Modern French pouvoir. Displaced native Old English anweald.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?pa??(?)/, /?pa?.?(?)/
  • (with triphthong smoothing) IPA^(key): /pa?/, /pa?/, /p??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?pa?.?/, /?pa??/, [?p?a???], [?p?a???]
• Rhymes: -a?.?(?), -a??(?)
• Hyphenation: pow?er

Noun

power (countable and uncountable, plural powers)

1. Ability to do or undergo something.
   • 2018, Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (page 74)

     If it is spirits who have power to suffer, it seems they would also have active powers to think and will.

2. (social) Ability to coerce, influence or control.
   1. (countable) Ability to affect or influence.

      • An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.

      • Thwackum, on the contrary, maintained that the human mind, since the fall, was nothing but a sink of iniquity, till purified and redeemed by grace. […] The favourite phrase of the former, was the natural beauty of virtue; that of the latter, was the divine power of grace.

      • 1998, Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

        Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present.

   2. Control or coercion, particularly legal or political (jurisdiction).
      • 1949, Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

        The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. [...] We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

      • 2005, Columbia Law Review, April

        In the face of expanding federal power, California in particular struggled to maintain control over its Chinese population.
   3. (metonymically, chiefly in the plural) The people in charge of legal or political power, the government.

      Synonym: powers that be

   4. (metonymically) An influential nation, company, or other such body.
3. (physical, uncountable) Effectiveness.
   1. Physical force or strength.

   2. Electricity or a supply of electricity.
   3. A measure of the rate of doing work or transferring energy.
   4. The strength by which a lens or mirror magnifies an optical image.

4. (colloquial, dated) A large amount or number.

   • The threatning words of duke Robert comming at the last to king Henries eares, caused him foorthwith to conceiue verie sore displeasure against a power of men sent into Normandie.
5. Any of the elementary forms or parts of machines: three primary (the lever, inclined plane, and pulley) and three secondary (the wheel-and-axle, wedge, and screw).

   the mechanical powers

6. (physics, mechanics) A measure of the effectiveness that a force producing a physical effect has over time. If linear, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the displacement of or in an object) ÷ time. If rotational, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the angle of displacement) ÷ time.
7. (mathematics)
   1. A product of equal factors (and generalizations of this notion): ${\displaystyle x^{n}}$, read as "${\displaystyle x}$ to the power of ${\displaystyle n}$" or the like, is called a power and denotes the product ${\displaystyle x\times x\times \cdots \times x}$, where ${\displaystyle x}$ appears ${\displaystyle n}$ times in the product; ${\displaystyle x}$ is called the base and ${\displaystyle n}$ the exponent.
   2. (set theory) Cardinality.
   3. (statistics) The probability that a statistical test will reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.
8. (biblical, in the plural) In Christian angelology, an intermediate level of angels, ranked above archangels, but exact position varies by classification scheme.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with "power": electric, nuclear, optical, mechanical, political, absolute, corporate, institutional, military, economic, solar, magic, magical, huge, physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, sexual, seductive, coercive, erotic, natural, cultural, positive, negative, etc.

Synonyms

Antonyms

• impotence
• weakness

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? German: Power
• ? Welsh: p?er

Translations

Verb

power (third-person singular simple present powers, present participle powering, simple past and past participle powered)

1. (transitive) To provide power for (a mechanical or electronic device).

   This CD player is powered by batteries.

2. (transitive) To hit or kick something forcefully.
3. To enable or provide the impetus for.

Derived terms

• power down
• power up
• empower

Translations

Adjective

power (comparative more power, superlative most power)

1. (Singapore, colloquial) Impressive.

Further reading

• power at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• powre

German

Etymology 1

From French pauvre, from Latin pauper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?po?v?r/, [?po?v?]
• Hyphenation: po?wer

Adjective

power (comparative powerer, superlative am powersten)

1. (regional, informal) poor, miserable

Declension

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pa???r/, [?pa???]
• Homophone: Power

Verb

power

1. singular imperative of powern
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of powern

Further reading

• “power” in Duden online

English

Etymology

From Middle English brawne, from Old French braon (“slice of meat, fleshy part, buttock”), from Frankish *br?don, *br?dan, accusative form of *br?d? (“roasted meat, ham”), from Proto-Germanic *br?dô (“meat, roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?r?- (“to burn, heat”), from *b?rewh?- (“to boil, bubble, burn”). Akin to Old High German br?to (“tender meat”) (German Braten (“roast”)), Old English br?de, br?d (“flesh, meat”), Old Norse bráð (“raw meat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b???n/
• Rhymes: -??n

Noun

brawn (uncountable)

1. Strong muscles or lean flesh, especially of the arm, leg or thumb.
2. Physical strength; muscularity.
   • 2000, Stephanie Laurens, A Secret Love, Avon Books (2000), ?ISBN, page 349:

     The man was a bruiser, the sort who'd learned his science in tavern brawls. Given his size and lack of agility, he relied on his brawn to win. In any wrestling match, Crowley would triumph easily.

   • 2008, Michael Mandaville, Stealing Thunder, Dog Ear Publishing (2008), ?ISBN, page 562:

     The two men were husky, picked for their brawn by the little man who sauntered into the room.

   • 2010, Martin Pasko & Robert Greenberger, The Essential Superman Encyclopedia, Del Ray (2010), ?ISBN, page 218:

     The youth agreed to the scheme and used his brawn to begin moving pieces into place, starting by moving the planet Rann into the Thanagarian star system […]

3. (chiefly Britain) Head cheese; a terrine made from the head of a pig or calf; originally boar's meat.
   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

     Now if your Majesty would have our bristles
     To bind your mortar with, or fill our colons
     With rich blood, or make brawn out of our gristles,
     In policy—ask else your royal Solons—
     You ought to give us hog-wash and clean straw,
     And sties well thatched; besides it is the law!

   • 1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus 2014, p. 111:

     It was brawn and shape for high tea.

4. (Britain, dialectal) A boar.
   • 1821, John Stagg, The Cumbrian Minstrel: Being a Poetical Miscellany:

     And loud as brawns wer [they] snoring,

   • 1842, Moses Aaron Richardson, The Borderer's Table Book: Or, Gatherings of the Local History:

     THE village of Brancepath, pleasantly situated at the distance of four miles and three- quarters south-west by west of Durham, is said to have derived its name (a corruption of Brawn's-path) from a brawn of vast size, [...]

Derived terms

• brawny

Translations

See also

• aspic

Verb

brawn (third-person singular simple present brawns, present participle brawning, simple past and past participle brawned)

1. (transitive) Make fat, especially of a boar.
2. (intransitive) Become fat, especially of a boar.

Derived terms

• brawner

Translations

Middle English

Noun

brawn

1. Alternative form of brawne