the.com/power grab

means An attempt to seize control or authority suddenly and often without legitimate process, typically at someone else's expense.

from A plain-spoken compound, not a borrowed or ancient word — 'power' from Old French 'pouvoir' (to be able), rooted in Latin 'posse,' and 'grab' from a Germanic root related to 'grabben,' meaning to snatch roughly. The phrase itself is modern, likely 20th-century political and corporate slang, built the way English loves to build things: smash two ordinary words together and let the image do the work. No myth needed — the grabbing hand says it all.