Etymology

power-up

Today it means: A collectable item that gives the player some benefit. Full definition →

Japanese パワーアップ
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The story

  1. Japanese · calque ofパワーアップ
  2. English todaypower-up

Calque of Japanese パワーアップ (pawā-appu), itself a wasei eigo (和製英語; pseudo-anglicism) derived from power + up.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.