potency
noun/ˈpəʊtənsi/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin potentia. Doublet of Potenza.
1
Power, authority.
- 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.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:
- Beset on either hand by potencies greater than himself, he becomes the battle-ground of immortals.1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VIII. The Orestea: III. Eumenides”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 206:
1 more example
- The doctor is the modern master of the mythological realm, the knower of all the secret ways and words of potency.1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 9:
2
The ability or capacity to perform something
3
Usually, Of men Sexual virility: the ability to become erect or achieve orgasm.
- Pliny the Elder states that, to increase sexual potency, the right testis of an ass should be worn in a bracelet.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 49:
4
Of alcoholic drinks, Of drugs Concentration; strength
5
Potentiality, ability, capacity.
6
Mathematics, Sciences Dated Cardinality.
- Derived terms
- biopotency, bipotency, equipotency, idempotency, immunopotency, multipotency, oligopotency, orgastic potency, prepotency, subpotency, superpotency, tripotency, unipotency