puissance

noun

Etymology: From Middle English puissaunce, from Anglo-Norman puissance, pusaunce, and other forms, from Old French puissant (“powerful”).

1. power, might or potency

   “The Sarazin ſore daunted with the buffe / Snatcheth his ſword, and fiercely to him flies; / Who well it wards, and quyteth cuff with cuff: / Each others equall puiſſaunce enuies, / And through their iron ſides with cruelties / Does ſeeke to perce: repining courage yields / No foote to foe.”

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

2. The high-jump component of the sport of show jumping.

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

   “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.”