Wiktionary

potency

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin potentia. Doublet of Potenza.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈpəʊtənsi/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Hyphenation: po‧ten‧cy

Noun

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potency (countable and uncountable, plural potencies)

  1. Power, authority.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 67, column 2:
      I would to heauen I had your potencie,
      And you were Isabell: should it then be thus?
      No: I would tell what 'twere to be a Iudge,
      and what a prisoner.
    • 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. The Orestea: III. Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 206:
      Beset on either hand by potencies greater than himself, he becomes the battle-ground of immortals.
    • 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 9:
      The doctor is the modern master of the mythological realm, the knower of all the secret ways and words of potency.
  2. The ability or capacity to perform something
    1. (usually of men) Sexual virility: the ability to become erect or achieve orgasm.
      Antonym: impotence
      • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 49:
        Pliny the Elder states that, to increase sexual potency, the right testis of an ass should be worn in a bracelet.
  3. (of alcoholic drinks, of drugs) Concentration; strength
  5. Potentiality, ability, capacity.
  6. (mathematics, dated) Cardinality.

Derived terms

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Translations

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