horsepower
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See also: horse-power and horse power
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]horse + power: the unit was originally defined as the amount of power that a horse could provide.
Both non-metric and metric units of power were derived from effectively identical measurements of the power a draught horse could sustain over several hours, with the difference in watts solely due to different rounding errors to express that power in round numbers in the original non-SI units (ft·lbf/min and kgf⋅m/s respectively).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (General American) enPR: hôrsʹpou'ər, IPA(key): /ˈhɔɹsˌpaʊɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hôsʹpou'ə, IPA(key): /ˈhɔːsˌpaʊə/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
[edit]horsepower (countable and uncountable, plural horsepowers or horsepower)
- (uncountable) Power derived from the motion of a horse.
- 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 86:
- Shillibeer's bus came in 1829 drawn by three horses. Later two horses were found sufficient to pull these closed wagonettes, which eventually had outside seats, and later on the substitution of a motor for horsepower.
- 2003, Gavin Weightman, What the Industrial Revolution Did for Us, page 57:
- The wheel was to have been turned by horsepower, but it was adapted to be driven by a mill-wheel on the river Derwent […]
- A nonmetric unit of power (symbol hp) with various definitions, for different applications. The most common of them is probably the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 745.7 watts.
- 2012 March 22nd, David Blockley, Engineering: A Very Short Introduction (309), Oxford University Press, →ISBN, chapter 2: “The age of gravity – time for work”, page 20:
- In the past, before the widespread adoption of SI units, the work that engines were capable of doing was compared with the work that horses could do – hence the term ‘horsepower’. Various people came up with various equivalencies, but the modern agreed definition is that 1 horsepower is 746 joules per second or 746 watts.
- 2012 March 22nd, David Blockley, Engineering: A Very Short Introduction (309), Oxford University Press, →ISBN, chapter 2: “The age of gravity – time for work”, page 20:
- A metric unit (symbol often PS from the German abbreviation), approximately equal to 735.5 watts.
- (uncountable) Strength.
- political horsepower
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]non-metric
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metric
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strength
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Anagrams
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- English compound terms
- English 3-syllable words
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- en:Units of measure