Etymologically
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potential

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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

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