impotence

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English impotence,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman inpotence and Middle French impotence,^[4][5][6] from Latin impotentia (“lack of power; lack of self-control”),^[4][5][7][3] from impotēns (“powerless; lacking self-control”),^[5][7][8] formed from in- (“not”) and potēns (“powerful”).^[5][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1259, meaning bodily weakness.^[10][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Webster's Third add Medieval Latin impotentia as a source beside French.^[3][11] The Latin noun also gave Spanish impotencia, Portuguese impotência and Italian impotenzia.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bodily weakness or incapacity, especially from age, illness or injury: about 1406, in Hoccleve's La Mâle Règle.^[4] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century, also in the sense "poverty",^[5] and the Middle English Dictionary records physical weakness, helplessness, poverty and sexual impotence.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By about 1425, again in Hoccleve, the word had widened to a general lack of power to act or influence events.^[4] The sexual sense is recorded from 1547 in the OED, in Andrew Borde's Breviary of Health;^[4] Etymonline dates it to about 1500 and the Shorter Oxford to the late 15th century.^[5][6] In French it appears in this sense only in 1573.^[4] The Latin senses "violence, fury, unbridled passion", from the idea of lacking power over oneself, were sometimes used in English:^[5] the OED records "lack of self-restraint" from before 1640 to 1861.^[4][6]

Timeline

• c. 1406 – lack of physical strength; weakness, infirmity.^[4]
• c. 1425 – lack of power to act or control; helplessness.^[4]
• 1547 – inability to have sexual intercourse; inability to achieve an erection.^[4]
• before 1640 – lack of self-restraint (obsolete by 1861).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of power or ability; helplessness: the impotence of the council in the face of the floods.^[3][4][1]
2. Lack of bodily strength; weakness or feebleness.^[3][4][6]
3. Inability to achieve or keep an erection or to have sexual intercourse.^[4][6][1]
4. (obsolete, 1640–1861) Lack of self-restraint.^[4][6]

Related words

• impotent
• potent
• potency
• potential
• possible

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam