The story
- Latin · derived frompulvis“dust, powder”
- Latin · derived frompulverem
- Old French · derived frompoudre
- Middle English · inherited frompoudre
- English todaypowder
From Middle English poudre, pouder, pouldre, borrowed from Old French poudre, poldre, puldre, from Latin pulverem, accusative singular of Latin pulvis (“dust, powder”). Doublet of pulver. Compare pollen (“fine flour”), polverine, pulverize.
Words from the same roots
Old Frenchpoudre all →
piepowder
Latinpulverem all →
piepowder
Latinpulvis all →
polverinepulverine
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.