α. 1600s impover, 1600s impowre, 1600s– impower.
β. 1600s empour, 1600s empowre, 1600s– empower.
empowerv.
/ɪmˈpaʊə/, /ɛmˈpaʊə/, U.S. /ᵻmˈpaʊər/, /ɛmˈpaʊər/ 1. transitive. To invest with legal or formal power or authority; to authorize or license to do something or for a purpose. Also: to invest with this type of power or authority.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > delegated authority > investing with delegated authority > vest authority in a person [verb (transitive)] > invest a person with authority
authorize1440
invest1534
warrant1578
empower1641
facultate1648
vest1674
α.
β. 1648 W. Prynne Remonstr. & Declar. against Unfaithfulness 6 Much lesse did we or any of us actually or intentionally authorize or empower them, or any of them, to subvert the very foundations of this and all other Parliaments.1655 H. L'Estrange Reign King Charles 75 Letters from the Pope..empowering them to erect this Colledge.1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub vii. 145 I do here empower him to remove it.1786 T. Jefferson Writings (1859) I. 567 A clause is inserted..empowering the King to discontinue it at any time.1789 Times 20 Nov. 3/3 Men of profligate principles empowered with empanelling of juries, may..send people to the New-drop, or Botany Bay, who ought to go to some better place.1822 Act 3 Geo. IV c. 4 §23 Any Person empowered for that Purpose by the said Chief Secretary,..shall..have Access to the said Book [of accounts].1860 J. L. Motley Hist. Netherlands (1868) I. i. 18 They were empowered..to levy troops by land and sea.1909 Amer. Real Estate Seller Aug. 6 When..you empower one and only one agent to dispose of it for you—your property is being listed exclusively.1954 Times 1 July 9/6 University College of North Staffordshire..is the only university college empowered to grant degrees.1965 K. Vonnegut God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1967) viii. 116 Some routine legal papers for you to sign. They empower me to run half of the farm.2009 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 9 Apr. 38/1 The Extraordinary Chambers is empowered to investigate and indict more of the many former Khmer Rouge leaders still at large.1641 E. Dering Speeches Commons House Parl. 8 You will please to select a Subcommittee of 4, 6, 8, or 10. at the most, and to impower them for the discovery of the great number of oppressed Ministers.
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. viii. 7 These visitors, not as yet impowred by law.
1701 Syst. Geogr. 438/2 The Receiver of the Customs is impower'd to take Cognizance of all Fraudulent Practices relating to Pecuniary Duties.
1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod ii. i. 51 The commissioners were..impowered to survey the lands adjoining to the city of London.
1850 Newcastle Courant 21 June ii. 3/5 As the law impowered them to mitigate the penalty, they would reduce it to one-third.
1980 Orange Coast Sept. 52/2 It wasn't the popular thing to do, but she did what she was impowered to do by Carroll.
2.
a. transitive. To confer power on, make powerful; (in later use) spec. to give (a person) more control over his or her life or circumstances, by increasing civil rights, independence, self-esteem, etc.; to give (a person) the confidence to control his or her life or circumstances, esp. as gained from an awareness of or a willingness to exert her or his rights.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > power > make powerful [verb (transitive)]
to set up1387
ablec1425
fortify1470
strengthen1541
power1592
empower1643
invirtuate1650
1643 J. Spelman View of Printed Bk. sig. B4v May Newcastle, or any other particular Borough, or County disauthorize those they have impowred?
1690 W. Penn Brief Acct. Rise Quakers (1834) 17 Who empowered them as their work witnesseth.
1700 T. D'Urfey Famous Hist. Rise & Fall Massaniello i. ii. i. 12 Honest Intention must impower and arm us.
1792 H. H. Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry I. i. iii. 32 We will impower him; and it is better to trust a plain man like him, than one of your high flyers, that will make laws to suit their own purposes.
1845 E. T. Clapp Stud. in Relig. 121 We cannot conceive what prompted or empowered him.
1886 H. W. Beecher Plymouth Pulpit 9 May 72/1 Such is the nature of children..refining us, deepening us, empowering us, and bringing us into a superior understanding of God.
1967 Negro Digest June 21 Black Americans who believe in the..need to empower Black People for the fulfillment of the greatest good for all.
1989 Professional Counselor Mar. 35/1 By empowering yourself, the healing presence of your position as counselor reassures and soothes the ragged heart.
2010 Independent 8 Apr. 11/1 A government body set up to empower Muslim women has been dismissed by one of its founders as a ‘tick box exercise’.
b. transitive. With with (also in). To endow with a particular quality, attribute, or ability. Frequently in passive.
ΚΠ
1646 Conscience Caution'd 10 I am as low as man can be..but might I be raised from thence, and inthroned in the mid'st of heaven..and my selfe inpowered with Omnipotency.
1774 Ladies' Diary 27 Both Peru, Golconda, and Persia's rich Die, Impower me in Splendor with you for to vie.
1826 N.-Y. Mirror 18 Nov. 134/1 Whether amid Alpine rocks, Arabian sands, or polar snows, was he proof against peril and seemed empowered with ubiquity!
c1860 Sepoy's Daughter xlix. 214/2 It was indeed a severe trial for poor Flora, but providence seemed to empower her with more than natural fortitude to meet it.
1922 A. M. Shaw Shorten Line v. 56 The Holy Spirit specially empowered them in the discernment and communication of truth.
1988 Nature June 810/1 Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, was empowered with the capacity of prophecy by the god Apollo.
2011 C. A. Cottom Notes from Outside Box iv. 18 With imagination, human matter was empowered with the ability to conceptualize that which does not exist in the physical world.
c. transitive. With to (also for). To give (a person) the means, ability, or strength to do something; to enable. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > be capable of [verb (transitive)] > enable or capacitate
allow?c1450
enablea1500
habilitate1604
abilitatea1628
empower1648
capacitate1657
capacifya1677
sufficientize1693
β.
α. 1649 J. Horn Life Faith in Death 19 Love demonstrated from God to a sinner,..to move him, impower and enable him to the thing required of him.1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost x. 369 Thou us impow'rd To fortifie thus farr. View more context for this quotation1718 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad IV. xiv. 295 Impower'd the Wrath of Gods and Men to tame.1798 tr. J. G. Zimmermann Solitude Considered iv. 126 The asseverations of Macarius; that he had raised persons from the grave, and impowered them to hold long discourse with him.1850 Fayetteville (N. Carolina) Observer 2 Apr. 1/7 I do not feel myself even impowered to speak what will be the judgment and conduct of my own State.1968 Black Belt Sept. 46/2 The tong leaders, each time they felt impowered to reinforce their position, would ‘allow’ the police to arrest a Chinese and do away with him.1648 R. Chestlin Persecutio Undecima 30 O the excellent justice of the New Saints!..which these weak Christians, by the help of a misguided Patrioticall party have raised to empower themselves to force the consciences of all men..to a new Covenant.
1686 J. Scott Christian Life: Pt. II II. vii. 1344 Much less can he impower others to do Miracles.
1727 D. Defoe Syst. Magick i. iv. 93 Some have doubted, whether the Devil is empower'd to take up any human Shape.
1796 F. Burney Camilla IV. viii. iv. 278 The unconstrained freedom with which he was empowered to have more books upon the table.
1869 Contemp. Rev. 11 260 Air and..exercise..empower the man for any intellectual or moral work.
1878 A. Trollope Is he Popenjoy? I. xvi. 219 To empower women to take their own equal places in the world—places equal to those occupied by men.
1958 Immunology 1 1 Adrenal cortical grafts..are held to be successful when they empower adrenalectomised mice to subsist on a diet low in NaCl.
2009 Daily Tel. 17 Dec. 32/1 All of a sudden, every person is empowered to create, and then instantaneously distribute, video at the push of a button.
3. transitive. To give power over something.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > power > assume power [verb (reflexive)]
empowera1653
a1653 H. Binning Sinners Sanctuary (1670) xxxiii. 236 Doth not all this teach us plainly that we should not live after the flesh? that we owe not so much to this bruitish part, as to enthrone it and impower it over us?
1657 J. Sergeant Schism Dispach't 179 That William the Conquerour should have impower'd himself over England.
1673 W. Lucy Answer to Hobbs his Leviathan xx. 133 They had no power over their own lives; and therefore could not impower him over them.
1814 W. Walton Exposé Dissentions Spanish Amer. 374 I leave my reader to judge of the consequences, of a captain commanding a black band, just freed from slavery,..being empowered over the lives of individuals.
1888 R. F. Burton tr. Arabian Nights' Entertainm.: Suppl. Nights VI. dcclxxi. 331 Our Lord favoured him and restored to him his two eyes and empowered him over the kingdom and thus did he become Sovran and Sultan.
1995 D. C. Washburn Dilemma of Mod. in Japanese Fiction v. 108 A writer acutely aware of the need for a narrative form and language to establish or empower himself over the tradition.
Derivatives
emˈpowerer n.
ΚΠ
1646 J. Lilburne Charters of London 36 What doth this else..but instate the people the impowrers or betrusters, into an absolute condition of disobedience?
1762 Gazetteer & London Daily Advertiser 28 Sept. 4/1 His empowerers had been conscious that the brightness of his understanding was equal to the greatness of the undertaking.
1876 D. D. Whedon Pop. Comm. New Test. IV. 364/1 The author of that salvation..and the empowerer of our souls to accept it, is God.
1911 Methodist Rev. Mar. 222 Love was his empowerer and his doom.
2013 Star (S. Africa) (Nexis) 9 Mar. 14 The smartphone in today's world is the great leveller, the great empowerer of those whose voices were formerly not heard.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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