Etymology From Middle English potentat, from Old French, from Late Latin potentātus (“rule, political power”), from Latin potēns (“powerful, strong”), the active present participle of possum (“to be able”).
1
A powerful leader; a monarch; a ruler.
But Kings and mightieſt Potentates muſt die, For that's the end of humane miſerie.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
She was now one of a group of oriental beauties who, in the second act of the comic opera, were paraded by the vizier before the new potentate as the treasures of his harem.1900, Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie:
4 more examples
Life for ordinary barons in Outremer Jerusalem was probably better than for kings in Europe, where even potentates wore unlaundered wool and lived in bare-stone draughty keeps with rough furniture.2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 269:
Anyone expecting such a speech has forgotten that Trump’s first impulse is to please. He is constitutionally incapable of displeasing a live audience, let alone a foreign potentate who has recently lassoed him with a golden chain.2017 May 21, Graeme Wood, “Trump Complies Perfectly With the Saudi Line”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 23 Jun 2017:
Bad news for a certain kind of pedantic patriot (look away now, Jacob Rees-Mogg). Prince Charles has debased the English language – and in a letter to a foreign potentate, no less.2019 April 18, David Shariatmadari, “Ize on the prize: is Prince Charles the last guardian of British spelling?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2019:
The place in question was the stretch of Campanian coastline around the Bay of Naples. Originally a quiet retreat of rugged cliffs and healing thermal springs, by the middle of the first century B.C., the bay was teeming with military potentates, spendthrift aristocrats and the people who could afford to keep up with them.2025 August 16, Honor Cargill-Martin, “Caligula in the Hamptons”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2025:
"Those foreigners," thought the female potentate of the Sun, "won't know what to order; but I'll show them what a good supper is."1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 194:
Etymology From Middle English potentat, from Old French, from Late Latin potentātus (“rule, political power”), from Latin potēns (“powerful, strong”), the active present participle of possum (“to be able”).