power pointn.
/ˈpaʊə pɔɪnt/, U.S. /ˈpaʊ(ə)r ˌpɔɪnt/, Australian English /ˈpæɔə poɪnt/, New Zealand English /ˈpæuə poent/ 1.
a. Chiefly British, Australian, and New Zealand. A socket, generally in a wall or floor, by means of which an electrical appliance or device can be connected to the electricity supply.In early use distinguished from sockets for electric lighting.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical appliances or devices > [noun] > socket
socket1885
receptacle1887
wall plug1888
electric socket1892
keyholder1892
outlet1892
point1904
power point1912
power socket1922
socket outlet1934
lighter socket1946
line in1970
line out1970
out1980
1912 Times 24 Jan. 22/6 Electrical installation at the L.C.C. School of Photo Engraving and Lithography, comprising 280 lighting and 50 power points.
1951 ‘N. Shute’ Round Bend iv. 143 I got a lot of rubber-coated flex and fittings..and set to work to wire up all three bedrooms and the living room with power points.
1980 A. Mars-Jones Lantern Lect. & Other Stories (1981) 11 He has a single power-point installed, into which he plugs a standard lamp and two hundred feet of extension flex.
2016 C. O'Callaghan Nothing on Earth (2017) iv. 112 They walked to the library, where she charged her laptop for free at a power point beneath the back shelves.
b. figurative and in figurative contexts. A source of power.
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the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [noun] > attractive person > woman > attributes
power point1951
1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 98/2 To the mind of the modern girl, legs, like busts, are power points which she has been taught to tailor.
1978 Listener 2 Feb. 159/1 Surrealism..works that sprang into being simply by unplugging the power-points of the mind.
2005 R. Buckland Spirit Bk. 229/1 Where two or more leys cross is a power point that has, in the past, naturally drawn people to assemble or build structures such as standing stones, barrows, temples and churches.
2. Australian slang (derogatory and offensive). A Chinese or South-East Asian person.Apparently so called because of the supposed resemblance of a standard Australian electrical socket to a pair of slanting eyes and a nose.
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the world > people > ethnicities > Mongol peoples of South-East Asia > [noun]
Tai1693
Shan1800
Lao1882
power point1986
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Asia > the Chinese > [noun] > native or inhabitant of China
Cathayan?1520
Chinean1577
Son of Heaven1579
Chino1588
chinois1594
Chinese1606
Chinesianc1615
Chinaman1621
China1638
Chinist1654
Chinensian1655
pigtail1823
celestial1842
Johnny1844
coolie1849
John1853
Chinky1871
chow1872
Chink1880
monk1903
Pong1910
power point1986
1986 B. Hudson First Austral. Dict. Vulgarities & Obscenities Foreword No, not the boongs or the sheilas or the powerpoints (look it up). The biggest victim of abuse is that beergutted wonder, that chundering fool, the Aussie bloke.
2016 @hopdac 3 July in twitter.com (accessed 9 Dec. 2020) You get called a chogie, powerpoint, slope, gook, ching chong, and often by kids you were friends with b4 high school #growingupaustralian.
3. Chiefly in form PowerPoint. A proprietary name for: a software package designed to create electronic presentations consisting of a series of separate pages or slides. Also: (more fully PowerPoint presentation) a presentation made using this software.
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1987 InfoWorld 2 Mar. 5/2 Forethought Inc. last week introduced PowerPoint, a Macintosh program that lets users create and manage business presentations.
1990 PC Mag. 30 Oct. 284/3 PowerPoint presentations are based on a simple color scheme of eight hues.
2002 N.Y. Times 16 Oct. c8/6 ‘I truly believe his PowerPoint was superior to your own,’ Mr. Dobbs told Mr. Deutsch, who laughed heartily. Mr. Kellner's PowerPoint presentation was extensive indeed.
2019 C. Carty-Williams Queenie (2020) ii. 37 They asked me to give five examples of culture websites and what makes them so successful. I had to do a PowerPoint and everything.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1912