English → Latin
“powder” in Latin
pulvisdust, powder, ashes; an arena, place of contest; toil, effort, laborpulvisculusfine dust, fine powder; wholly, completely
The English word powder itself goes back to Latin pulvis, through pulverem.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
powder
pulvis, -eris, masculine; pulvisculus; (as a medicine), pulvis medicatus; (for the hair), pulvis crinalis; (gunpowder), *pulvis nitratus; *pulvis pyrius. Not to be worth powder and shot, plane nullius esse pretii; pro nihilo putandum esse: a powder-flask, *theca pulveris pyrii: powder-magazine, *horreum pulveris pyrii: powder-mill, *pulveris pyrii, nitrati, officina: a barrel of powder, *dolium pulvere nitrato repletum: powder-horn, *cornu pulveris pyrii: powder-room, *cella pulveri pyrio servando: *cella pulveris pyrii: powder-cart, *plaustrum pulverem pyrium vehens: powder-ship, *navis pulverem pyrium vehens; *navis pulvere pyrio, nitrato, onusta: to reduce to powder, in pulverem conterere (Plin.) or redigere (Cels.) aliquid: of powder, pulvereus.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for powder?
- The usual Latin words for “powder” are pulvis, pulvisculus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.