Gulliver’s Travels vocabulary

11 archaic vocabulary words

11 [archaic] words
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puissant

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Definition:
powerful; having authority; authoritative

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Uses:
I cried in a loud voice, "Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!"

Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Regions of the World (1726)
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TARTUFFE: I've not forgot some help you may have given; But my first duty now is toward my prince. The higher power of that most sacred claim Must stifle in my heart all gratitude; And to such puissant ties I'd sacrifice my friend, my wife, my kindred, and myself.
ELMIRE: The hypocrite!

Molière. Tartuffe Or, the Hypocrite
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 She shall feel gold, taste gold, hear gold, sleep gold;
 Nay, we will concumbere* gold: I will be puissant,
 And mighty in my talk to her.—

Ben Jonson. The Alchemist (1610)
*concumbo - [Latin] have sex with
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Here and there might have been discerned a frown at these revelations concerning a most puissant noble of the English Crown, but the overriding reaction was an untrammeled delight in the scandal.

Diana Gabaldon. Outlander (1991)
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