potente

Forms

potente m or f (masculine and feminine plural potentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin potēns (“powerful, able”), a learned word beside the inherited pudiente.^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of poder, with the first record in Berceo.^[4][5]

The Latin adjective is the present participle of possum (“to be able”).^[6][7] Corominas explains that the classical conjugation of that verb combined the forms of an old simple verb, preserved in Oscan, with a contracted phrase meaning “to be able”, and that the participle belongs to the simple verb.^[4] De Vaan derives the participle from potis (“able, having the power”), from Proto-Indo-European *pót-i-, the word for “master, lord” in other Indo-European languages.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (in an 18th-century copy) says that all the people of the town, páuperes et potentes “poor and powerful”, rejoiced.^[9][10] The first record in a contemporary manuscript is a Fuero de Burgos of 1290–1300, which calls down la yra de dios omni potente “the wrath of almighty God”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts often quote the Magnificat's deposuit potentes de sede, which kept the sense “the mighty” in view.^[9] Nebrija equates potente with poderoso.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives three senses: having power, efficacy or virtue for something; powerful, with Ercilla's el potente Rey Inga; and, in familiar style, huge or bulky, as in Cervantes's pumpkins tan potentes that they measured two or three fathoms.^[12] In 1817 the Academy added “capable of begetting”, said of a man; a 1575 text from Mexico already uses it in this sense.^[13][14] Moliner also records the mechanical sense, a powerful machine.^[15]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo, the first record.^[4][5][16]
• 1290–1300 – the Fuero de Burgos has dios omni potente.^[9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives potente o poderoso, Latin potens.^[11]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the familiar sense “huge, bulky”.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “capable of begetting”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. potent, effective: having power, efficacy or virtue for something: un veneno potente.^[2][1]
2. Of a person, powerful: having the capacity and means to dominate.^[2][1]
3. Of a person, very rich.^[2]
4. Of a man, capable of begetting; sexually potent.^[2][15]
5. Of a machine or engine, having great power.^[15]
6. (colloquial) Big, bulky, huge.^[2][12]

Word family

• potentemente

Related words

• poder
• potencia
• potencial
• potentado
• pudiente
• impotente
• prepotente
• Latin potēns

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. potente
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5180
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 588
5. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 599
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. potens
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. potente
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. potente
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. potente
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 400
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 342
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 694
14. ^ 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. potente
15. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. potente
16. ^ 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. potente
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 855