Other forms: powdered, powders
Powder is fine dust patted on the face to stop it shining. Face powder, setting powder, powder your nose.
Setting powder fixes makeup in place and controls shine, and applying too much is the commonest fault because it settles into fine lines. Powder your nose is a long-standing euphemism for going to the lavatory. The word covers any fine dust — gunpowder, washing powder. Note that it comes from the Latin for dust.
1nounpowderFine dust patted on the face to stop it shining.
“Before going on stage, she brushed some powder over her face and checked the mirror.”
2verbapplyTo apply powder to something.
“She powdered her nose before the photographs were taken.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
powder is a fine dust.
Old French poudre comes from Latin pulvis, dust. Pulverise and pollen come from the same dust.
Latin
pulverem
Old French
poudre
Middle English
poudre
English, today
powder
From Middle English poudre, pouder, pouldre, borrowed from Old French poudre, poldre, puldre, from Latin pulverem, accusative singular of Latin pulvis (“dust, powder”). a doublet of pulver. Compare pollen (“fine flour”), polverine, pulverize.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA