different between power vs travail

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

Alternative forms

• travel, travell (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?-v?l?, tr?v??l', IPA^(key): /t???ve?l/, /?t?æv?e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), from Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *tr?s + *p?kslos from Proto-Indo-European *peh??-.

Noun

travail (plural travails or travaux)

1. (literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship. [from 13th c.]
   • 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book V, §21:

     But as every thing of price, so this doth require travail.

   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, p. 38:

     He had thought of making a destiny for himself, through laborious and untiring travail.
2. Specifically, the labor of childbirth. [from 13th c.]
   • 1607–08, William Shakespeare (?), Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act III, Chorus:

     The lady shrieks and, well-a-near,

     Does fall in travail with her fear.

   • 1611, King James Version, Genesis 38:27–28:

     And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first,

3. (obsolete, countable) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British). [14th-18th c.]
4. (obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object. [17th c.]
5. Obsolete form of travel.
6. Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”)

Related terms

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “travail”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “travail”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology 2

From Middle English travailen, from Old French travaillier, from the noun (see above).

Verb

travail (third-person singular simple present travails, present participle travailing, simple past and past participle travailed)

1. To toil.
   • 1552, Hugh Latimer, "Fourth Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, Preached before Lady Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk":

     [A]ll slothful persons, which will not travail for their livings, do the will of the devil.

   • 1611, King James Version, Job 15:20:

     The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
2. To go through the labor of childbirth.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XIV:

     A woman when she traveyleth hath sorowe, be cause her houre is come: but as sone as she is delivered off her chylde she remembreth no moare her anguysshe, for ioye that a man is borne in to the worlde.

Translations

Further reading

• Tripalium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Middle French travail, from the singular form from Old French travail from Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”). Compare Occitan trabalh, Catalan treball, English travail, Italian travaglio, Portuguese trabalho, Spanish trabajo.

The plural from Old French travauz, from travailz with l-vocalization before a consonant. The final -auz was later spelled -aux, and the sequence -au-, which once represented a diphthong, now represents an o sound.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?a.vaj/
• Rhymes: -aj
• Homophones: travaille, travaillent, travailles

Noun

travail m (plural travaux)

1. work; labor
2. job
3. workplace

Synonyms

• boulot, taf, turbin, job

Derived terms

Further reading

• “travail” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French travail.

Noun

travail m (plural travails)

1. suffering; pain

Descendants

• French: travail

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (travail, supplement)

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”). Compare Occitan trabalh, Catalan treball, Italian travaglio, Portuguese trabalho, Spanish trabajo.

Noun

travail m (oblique plural travauz or travailz, nominative singular travauz or travailz, nominative plural travail)

1. suffering, torment

Descendants

• ? English: travail
• Middle French: travail
  • French: travail
• Norman: travas