Etymologically
Log in

potent

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 22:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford give the heraldic potent, originally a crutch, and the adjective meaning "powerful" separate numbered entries.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpəʊt(ə)nt/[4]
  • US: /ˈpoʊt(ə)nt/[4]

potent1 crutch; heraldic T-shape

Etymology

The heraldic potent is inherited from Middle English potente (“crutch”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman potente (“crutch”), also Middle French of Flanders and Picardy, recorded in Old French in the 13th century,[3][5] apparently an alteration of potence (“crutch, gibbet”),[3][2][6][1] perhaps through an unrecorded variant Medieval Latin *potenta of potentia (“power”),[3] which in Medieval Latin also meant a crutch.[6][5] In English its development was influenced by the noun and adjective potence.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A crutch, or a staff with a crosspiece to lean on: the OED's first example is from the Exchequer accounts of 1348.[3] Dictionary.com dates the Middle English word to 1325–75.[5]

Semantic evolution

From the crutch came the figurative sense "a support, a stay", recorded in Lydgate's Fall of Princes (?a1439) and rare after the 15th century;[3][2] in Scots the word was used about 1550 for a gibbet.[3] In 1688 Randle Holme used it for a cross handle shaped like the head of a crutch, and for the T-shaped figure of heraldry.[3] A cross whose arms end in such T-shapes is a cross potent, recorded in a Scottish heraldic manuscript before 1586,[3] about 1586 in Merriam-Webster;[1] potent counter potent, a heraldic fur made of rows of upright and inverted T-shapes placed end to end, is recorded from 1708.[3][1]

Timeline

  • 1348 – a crutch.[3]
  • ?a1439 – figuratively, a support or stay.[3]
  • c1550 – (Scots, obsolete) a gibbet.[3]
  • a1586 – adjective, of a heraldic cross: ending in T-shapes.[3][1]
  • 1688 – a T-shaped heraldic figure.[3]
  • 1708 – potent counter potent, a heraldic fur.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (heraldry) A T-shaped figure, especially a bar across the end of an arm of a cross.
  2. (heraldry) A fur made of rows of T-shaped figures, alternately upright and inverted.
  3. (archaic) A crutch; a support or stay.

Adjective

  1. (heraldry) Of a cross: having a flat crossbar at the end of each arm: a cross potent.

potent2 powerful

Etymology

The adjective meaning "powerful" is borrowed from Latin potēns (“powerful, mighty, effective”),[3][7][8][9][10] the present participle of possum (“to be able, be powerful”).[7][11][12][13] Barnhart and Hoad explain it as the participle of an unrecorded older verb Latin *poteō (“to be powerful”), from potis (“powerful, able”); because the infinitive of possum was a contraction of a phrase meaning "to be powerful" (potis with sum (“to be”)), potēns came to serve as its participle.[9][10][11][1] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *poti- (“powerful; lord”).[7][8] In post-classical Latin potēns was also said of strong wine, in a 13th-century British source.[3] French had potent in 1607, and Spanish potente is recorded from the 13th century.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person or thing: powerful, having great authority or influence, mighty.[3][9] Barnhart dates the word probably to about 1425;[9] the OED's first example is from the Speculum Sacerdotale (a1500, composed perhaps about 1425),[3] and Etymonline gives the early 15th century.[7] Dictionary.com dates it to 1490–1500.[5]

Semantic evolution

The general sense is now chiefly literary.[3] From it the word was applied to arguments and ideas that convince (1609, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida),[3] and to drugs and drinks with a strong effect, from 1603 in Drayton.[3][2] The sexual sense, of a man able to have intercourse, is recorded from before 1633 in Archbishop Abbot's Case of Impotency, the opposite of impotent.[3] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "powerful; forcible; strong; efficacious".[14] Used as a noun, potent meant a power (1512), a powerful person or potentate (1568–1704) and a military warrant (1622–1728), all now obsolete;[3][1] a 20th-century American noun use, a potion or herbal remedy, dates from 1902.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – powerful, mighty.[9][3]
  • 1512 – noun, a power (obsolete).[3]
  • 1568 – noun, a potentate (obsolete).[3]
  • 1603 – of a drug or drink: strong in effect.[3]
  • 1609 – of an argument: convincing.[3]
  • 1622 – noun, a military warrant (obsolete).[3]
  • a1633 – capable of sexual intercourse.[3]
  • 1902 – noun, a potion or herbal remedy.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Having great power, strength or influence: Fear of losing their jobs was a potent force among the workers.
  2. Of an argument or idea: persuasive, convincing.
  3. Of a drug, poison or drink: having a strong effect on the body: a potent sleeping pill.
  4. Of a man: able to have sexual intercourse; not impotent.

Word family

  • potently
  • potentness

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.