power [ME] Like *posse, power can be traced back to Latin posse ‘to be able’. Power corrupts got into the language through the quotation from Lord Acton: ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ (letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887), although others had used it slightly earlier. Whoever the authorities or people in control are in a particular situation can be referred to as the powers that be, a phrase that comes from the Bible: ‘For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God’ (Epistle to the Romans).