means A strongman is either a performer or athlete renowned for feats of physical strength, or an authoritarian political leader who rules through force, intimidation, and the concentration of power.

from A transparent English compound of "strong" and "man," with "strong" reaching back through Old English "strang" (powerful, firm) to a Germanic root tied to ideas of tightness and tension — a cousin, possibly, of "string" and "stringent." The literal sense — the muscle-bound circus and fairground performer — came first in the 19th century. The political sense, the iron-fisted ruler who keeps order by sheer dominance, is a 20th-century figurative borrowing, dressing the dictator in the carnival muscleman's costume.