Other forms: empowered, empowering, empowers
To empower is to give somebody the power or confidence to act. Empower staff, empowered to decide, an empowering experience.
It has two quite different senses, since the legal one means granting actual authority and the other means giving somebody the confidence to use what they already have. The second is worn thin by management writing.
1verbempowerTo give somebody the power or confidence to act.
“The course aims to empower women to start their own businesses.”
empower is an enabling.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁es-
Middle English
power
English
power
English, today
empower
From en- + power. power comes from Middle English power. From Middle English power, poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin posso, from Latin possum, whence potent. Compare French pouvoir. Displaced the native anweald.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA