Pronounced: SUB-ruh-gate, verb
Notes: This word has a much more common synonym
Yesterday’s word
The word puissant means “potent”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1400s
Background / Comments
Our word sounds a lot more run to use that ‘potent’. If you think it looks French, you are correct: it came into English from French. The French word came from the Latin word posse (to be able).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 