Word of the Day: puissance

puissance (n)

Ability to influence or coerce; having a controlling influence.

"Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is there a man who worships Jupiter today?"
--H. L. Mencken, "Where is the graveyard of dead gods?"

He may not be worshiped anymore, but he did have a humongous blob of methane gas in space named after him. That's some consolation, I guess.