means A strength sport in which competitors attempt their maximum single-rep effort in three lifts — the squat, bench press, and deadlift — with the heaviest successful totals winning.

from A plain compound of "power" and "lifting," coined in the mid-20th century to name a new competitive sport distinct from Olympic weightlifting. "Power" comes through Old French "poeir" from Latin "potere," to be able; "lift" is a Norse import, related to Old Norse "lypta," to raise. The sport formalized in the 1960s and '70s as lifters sought to standardize the raw "who can heave the most" contests that had long happened in gyms and at strongman shows — and the word, fittingly blunt, simply describes what's happening: lifting, for power.