That is what the word haki means, yes.
Jozu uses the term in 316. As his crewmates are dropping like flies to Shanks' Haoushoku, he says "sugei haki da na." Pretty unmistakable that he's talking about the power knocking all of his bros out.
Apparently Teach also uses the term haki back in Jaya too, though from the context (talking about Luffy's bounty boost after taking out Crocodile) he may have actually meant it as just "ambition" as opposed to haki power.
I don't understand what your point is, though. Haki was, at least in part, technically a mystery all the way until the very last chapter of part 1. It was never clearly or adequately explained in detail prior to that, and everything we knew about it came from "hints" like the one on Whitebeard's ship that accumulated over time. But by that incident with Shanks, all three variations of haki had already appeared (some numerous times, just without the haki label) and the name applied to the power had already been used in conjunction with said power. No matter how you slice it, haki had been introduced to the series by that point, even if the audience didn't completely understand what it was (or even necessarily that the disparate appearances of it were all related). Oda, if nothing else, knew exactly what haki was at least by that point, assuming he didn't always know what it was.
