potential

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /pəˈten.ʃəl/, US /poʊˈten.ʃəl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English potencial,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French potenciel and directly borrowed from Late Latin potentiālis (“potential, powerful”),^[4][3][2] from Latin potentia (“power, might, force”),^[4][2] from potēns (“powerful”), the present participle of posse (“to be able”),^[2] from potis (“powerful, able”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *poti- (“powerful; lord”).^[4] Merriam-Webster notes that Late Latin potentia rendered Greek dýnamis, “a state not yet fully realized”.^[5] It is related to potent and potency.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Possible as opposed to actual; latent”: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew,^[3][6] or the late 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In late Middle English a potential was also a caustic medicine for cauterizing, before 1425,^[3][4] and potential cautery a chemical that burns the skin like a hot iron.^[6] The adjective meant “potent, powerful” from about 1485, now rare.^[6] In grammar the potential mood, expressing possibility, is from 1524.^[6] The noun, “something possible, a possibility”, is from 1817, in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.^[3][4] In physics potential energy is from 1744^[6] and the potential function from 1828;^[6] electric potential is the work needed to bring a unit charge from infinitely far away to a given point.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1398 – possible, latent.^[3]
• before 1425 – noun, a caustic medicine.^[3]
• c. 1485 – powerful.^[6]
• 1524 – the potential mood.^[6]
• 1744 – potential energy.^[6]
• 1817 – noun, a possibility.^[3][4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Capable of coming into being but not yet existing; latent.
2. (grammar) Expressing possibility, as with may or can.

Noun

1. The ability to develop or succeed in the future: has great potential.
2. (physics) The work needed to bring a unit electric charge or mass to a point from far away; voltage.

Word family

• potentially
• geopotential
• overpotential
• multipotential
• equipotential
• nonpotential
• unipotential
• action potential

Related words

• potence
• potency
• potent
• potentate
• potentiality
• possible
• power
• despot

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin