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potencia

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word potencia

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1230 Gonzalo de Berceo More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Latin potentia
Ultimate origin
Latin possum
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin potis
Latin possum
Latin potēns
English potent
Spanish potente
Latin potentia
English potence
English potency
Spanish potencia
From the same root
Latin compos ← potis
Latin impos ← potis
Latin possideō ← potis
Latin possīdō ← potis
Latin potestās ← potis
Latin possibilis ← possum
Spanish imposible ← possum
Latin armipotēns ← potēns
Latin bellipotēns ← potēns
Latin impotēns ← potēns
Latin omnipotēns ← potēns
Latin praepotens ← potēns
Spanish impotente ← potēns
Latin potentiālis ← potentia

Pronunciation

  • /poˈtenθja/, [poˈt̪ẽn̟.θja], /poˈtensja/[1]

Forms

potencia f (plural potencias)[1] Old Spanish texts also spell it potençia.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin potentia (“power, might”), a learned word first recorded in Berceo.[4][5][6][1] The Diccionario de Autoridades already called it a purely Latin word.[7] Corominas treats it with the family of poder, whose Latin ancestor replaced the classical Latin verb.[4] The heraldic term potenza is a separate borrowing from French.[4]

The same Latin word is Portuguese potência, Italian potenza, French potence and Romanian potență.[1] In French it came to mean “crutch” and “gallows”.[8]

The Latin noun is formed from potēns (“able, powerful”) with the suffix -ia.[9][1] That adjective is the participle of possum (“to be able”).[10] Wiktionary analyses the verb as potis (“able, master”) with sum (“to be”), and traces the adjective to Proto-Indo-European *pótis (“master, husband”).[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de San Millán (about 1230, known from an 18th-century copy) uses it for the power of God: El Reï de los Cielos, de complida potencia “the King of Heaven, of perfect power”.[2] In the Libro de Alexandre and the Libro de Apolonio it means the might of a king or of God.[2]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija gave Latin potentia and potentatus as its equivalents, and Covarrubias defined it simply as power.[12][13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it first as the faculty to do or produce something, as in potencia auditiva “the faculty of hearing”, then as authority and as possibility.[7] Scholastic philosophy gave the phrase en potencia “potentially”, which Cervantes uses in the Quijote.[14]

Terreros recorded the sense “sovereign state”, as in the powers of Europe, and the mechanical potencia motriz.[15] By 1884 the Academy had senses in artillery, physics and mathematics, where it is the result of multiplying a number by itself, and the rays of light on images of the Child Jesus.[16] Baralt noted in 1855 that the French use one word, puissance, where Spanish uses several.[17] In the Americas it is recorded from 1515.[18]

Timeline

  • c. 1230 – first record, in Berceo.[4][2]
  • c. 1240–1250 – potençia in the Libro de Apolonio and the Libro de Alexandre.[2]
  • 1256 – Alfonso X's Picatrix has the Latin potentia in a formula.[2]
  • 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.[18]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as power.[13]
  • 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “faculty”, “authority” and “possibility”.[7]
  • 1786–1793 – Terreros records the sense “sovereign state” and the mechanical potencia motriz.[15]
  • 1884 – the Academy records the mathematical sense and the phrase elevar a potencia.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The capacity to do something or produce an effect: potencia visual.[5]
  2. The capacity to beget (engendrar), sexual potency.[5][1]
  3. Power (poder) and strength, especially of a state.[5][1]
  4. A sovereign nation or state; a power.[5]
  5. A powerful or influential person or body.[5]
  6. Each of the groups of rays of light set on the head of images of Christ (three) or on the forehead of Moses (two).[5]
  7. (philosophy) Each of the three faculties of the soul: understanding, will and memory.[5]
  8. (philosophy) The passive capacity to receive act; that which is possible but not actual.[5]
  9. (physics) Energy produced or used per unit of time.[5]
  10. (mathematics) The product of multiplying a quantity by itself one or more times.[5]

Word family

  • potencial
  • potenciar
  • potencialidad

Usage notes

En potencia means “potentially, in the making” (un campeón en potencia); elevar a potencia is “to raise to a power”;[19] de potencia a potencia is “as equals”.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. potencia
  3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. potencia
  4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 588
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. potencia
  6. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. potencia
  7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 341
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6696
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. potentia
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. potens
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. potis
  12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 400
  13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1225
  14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 898
  15. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 190
  16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 854
  17. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 544
  18. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. potencia
  19. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. villa

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Potencia.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/potencia. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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