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Etymology and origin of the English word potence

English has two nouns spelled potence, both from Latin potentia (“power”): one came from its sense of power, and the other from the later French sense "crutch", which gave a set of technical meanings.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpəʊtn(t)s/[1]
  • US: /ˈpoʊtn(t)s/[1]

potence1 power

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1413 The Pilgrimage of the Soul
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman potence via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin potis
Etymology tree of potence1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin potis
Latin possum
Latin potēns
English potent
Latin potentia
English potence
English potency
From the same root · potence1
Latin compos ← potis
Latin impos ← potis
Latin possideō ← potis
Latin possīdō ← potis
Latin potestās ← potis
Latin possibilis ← possum
Latin armipotēns ← potēns
Latin bellipotēns ← potēns
Latin impotēns ← potēns
Latin omnipotēns ← potēns
Latin praepotens ← potēns
Latin potentiālis ← potentia

Etymology

The word for power is inherited from Middle English potence,[5][6][2] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman potence (“power”) and Middle French potence[1][2] and partly directly borrowed from Latin potentia (“power, might”),[1][3] from potēns (“powerful”),[6][3] the present participle of possum (“to be able”),[1][4] which goes back to potis (“able, powerful”),[4] from Proto-Indo-European *poti- (“powerful; lord”).[4] Klein takes the Latin noun as a loan translation of Ancient Greek δύναμις (dúnamis).[6] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded in this sense from the first half of the 12th century,[7] and the OED says the French word lost it by the early 16th.[1] The OED compares Italian potenza and German Potenz.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Power or ability: in The Pilgrimage of the Soul, which the Middle English Dictionary dates to 1413 from a manuscript of before 1500, with potence explained as natural power.[5] The OED's first quotation is the same text in Caxton's print of 1483,[1] and Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

The OED and the Shorter Oxford define the later senses by potency.[1][3] In the 19th century it took on some of that word's meanings: a degree of power or intensity, in Coleridge in 1817 (obsolete by 1863);[1] the power of a substance to affect the body, in B. Taylor's translation of Goethe's Faust of 1871 (rare);[1] and a man's sexual capacity, from 1875.[1][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds a use in genetics, for the combined dominance effect of a group of polygenes.[2][8]

Timeline

  • 1413 – power, ability.[5]
  • 1817 – a degree of power or intensity (obsolete by 1863).[1][3]
  • 1871 – the strength of a substance (rare).[1]
  • 1875 – sexual potency.[1][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Potency; power, ability or strength.[2][1][3]
  2. Capacity for sexual intercourse.[1][3]
  3. (genetics) The combined dominance effect of a group of polygenes.[2][8]
  4. A degree of power or intensity (obsolete, 1817–63).[1][3]

potence2 crutch, gibbet, support

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1460 a book of arms
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman potence via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin potis

Etymology

The word for the crutch and the supports shaped like one is inherited from Middle English potence, also potance,[5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman potence (“crutch”) and Middle French potence,[1][2][3] from Latin potentia (“power”), which in post-classical Latin also meant a support or crutch, from the 12th century.[1][2] The French word is recorded as a crutch in the 12th century, a supporting framework in the 14th, a heraldic cross before 1450 and a gallows in 1474; the military formation, en potence, is from 1752, and the watchmaker's support is undated in French dictionaries.[1] Etymonline likewise derives the watchmaking term from a special sense of French "crutch".[4] The adjective is borrowed from French potencé, recorded in Middle French in 1456 and formed from the noun.[1][3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A heraldic device shaped like the head of a crutch: about 1460, in a book of arms, as bendly potance.[5][1] The plain sense "crutch" is recorded before 1500, in a translation of A. Chartier's Traité de l'Esperance.[5][1]

Semantic evolution

The senses follow the French word, which went from a crutch to other supports and to things with a crosspiece.[1][3] A gibbet or gallows was one such shape, from about 1500 to 1816,[1] and an engineering framework shaped like a gallows was another, recorded once, in 1832.[1] The watchmaker's potence, the fixture that carries the lower pivot of the balance, is dated by the OED from 1704, in J. Harris's Lexicon Technicum,[1] and earlier by Etymonline, to the 1670s;[4] the Shorter Oxford says the late 17th century.[3] The military formation, in which a line is thrown out at right angles to the main body, was in English use from 1760 to 1865.[1] A last application, recorded from 1887 and now historical, is the revolving post with a ladder that gave access to the nesting holes in a dovecote.[1][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1460 – a heraldic cross potent (obsolete by 1688).[5][1]
  • before 1500 – a crutch (obsolete by 1688).[5][1]
  • c. 1500 – a cross or gibbet (obsolete by 1816).[1]
  • 1602 – adjective, in cross potence.[1]
  • 1670s – a support in a watch.[4] The OED's first record is 1704.[1]
  • 1760 – a military formation (obsolete by 1865).[1]
  • 1832 – a gallows-shaped framework in engineering.[1]
  • 1887 – a revolving ladder post in a dovecote.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (watchmaking) A stud or bracket inside a watch or clock that holds the bearing for the lower pivot.[1][2][9]
  2. (historical) A revolving post with a ladder for reaching the nests in a dovecote.[1][3][9]
  3. A gibbet or gallows (obsolete, 1500–1816).[1][2][9]
  4. A crutch (obsolete, 1500–1688).[1][3][5]
  5. (heraldry) A cross potent (obsolete, 1460–1688).[1][3][5]
  6. (military) A troop formation with a line thrown out at an angle to the main body (obsolete, 1760–1865).[1][2][3]

Adjective

  1. (heraldry) Of a cross, having limbs that end in a crossbar; potent: cross potence.[1][2][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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)
  6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  9. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Potence.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/potence. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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