potenza

Forms

potenza f (plural potenze)^[1] The older form is Old Italian potenzia.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin potentia (“power, might; faculty, capacity”), from potēns (“able, powerful”).^{[5][6][7][8][1]} Within Italian it can also be analysed as from Italian potere + -enza.^[1]

The OLD takes the adjective as the participle of possum (“to be able”).^[9] De Vaan derives it rather from a stative verb Proto-Italic *pot-ē- (“to be master”), built on the noun seen in potis (“able”), from Proto-Indo-European *pot-i- (“master, lord”).^[10]

The same Latin word is French potence, beside the newer formation French puissance, and Spanish potencia.^[5] The French word came to mean a crutch, a T-shaped support and a gallows.^[11][8] DEI takes the political sense “a powerful state” as a 20th-century calque of that newer French formation and the physical sense from scientific Latin, though DELI dates both much earlier.^[8][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from G. Faba, before 1243, in the plural, for persons or states with exceptional means;^[12] Giacomo da Lentini (before 1250) uses the word for great force or energy.^[12] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date it from the end of the 12th or the first half of the 13th century, GRADIT from 1325.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Dante (1304–1308) uses potenza in philosophy, for the capacity to bring about or undergo change, the sense of Greek dynamis that is opposed to atto.^[12][8] His giant Ephialtes volle essere sperto Di sua potenza contra il sommo Giove (“wished to try his power against highest Jove”).^[4] In the 14th century M. Villani has the word in a military sense, and Vespasiano da Bisticci and the Piovano Arlotto in the 15th use it for a powerful state.^[8][12]

The sciences took the word up: Leonardo da Vinci (before 1519) for the work a machine does in a unit of time, C. Bartoli (1550) as potenzia for a number raised to an exponent, and C. Cattaneo (1836) in geology for the thickness of a stratum.^[12] Phrases include le grandi potenze (the great powers), in potenza (potentially) and all'ennesima potenza (to the nth degree), and colloquially a person can be una potenza, terrific.^[7][13][14]

Timeline

• Before 1243 – G. Faba uses the plural for powerful persons or states.^[12]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses potenza for great force.^[12]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses it in philosophy.^[12]
• 1325 – GRADIT's date of first record.^[7]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci uses it in mechanics.^[12]
• 1550 – C. Bartoli uses potenzia in mathematics.^[12]
• 1836 – C. Cattaneo uses it in geology.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. power, authority, influence of a person: In paese tutti temevano la sua potenza. La potenza di Dio is omnipotence.^[7][6][15]
2. The political, economic or military power of a state or group: la potenza militare.^[7][2][6]
3. A powerful person, group or state: le grandi potenze, the great powers;^[2][13][14] (colloquial) essere una potenza, to be terrific.^[2][13][14]
4. (often plural) A supernatural being: potenze celesti.^[2][13]
5. Physical strength, vigour;^[7][6][3] potenza sessuale, sexual potency.^[7][6][3]
6. Force, violence, intensity of a natural element, a blow or a voice.^[7][6]
7. Capacity to produce effects; strength of mind or feeling: potenza d'ingegno.^[7][2][3]
8. (philosophy) potentiality, the capacity to produce or undergo change, opposed to atto: in potenza, potentially.^[13][14][1]
9. (physics) Power: the work done in a unit of time.^[13][14][12]
10. (mathematics) Power: the product of a number multiplied by itself as many times as the exponent says: elevare a potenza.^[12][7][16]
11. (geology) The thickness of a stratum.^[12][1]
12. (pharmacology) potency.^[1]

Word family

• potenziale
• potenziometro
• potenzialità
• potenziare
• potenziamento
• depotenziare
• impotenza
• strapotenza
• prepotenza
• superpotenza

Related words

• potente
• potere
• possanza
• French puissance
• Latin potentia

Usage notes

DEI has a minor potenza of the same origin, taken from French potence: in clockmaking a pin screwed to the lower plate that holds a pivot of the balance (Magalotti), and in shipbuilding (1804) a cross-piece supporting the masts.^[8] With a capital, Potenza is the capital of Basilicata.^[1]

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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3042
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org