potency
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpəʊtənsi/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Hyphenation: po‧ten‧cy
Noun
potency (countable and uncountable, plural potencies)
- Power, authority.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 67, column 2:
- I would to heauen I had your potencie,
And you were Isabell: should it then be thus?
No: I would tell what 'twere to be a Iudge,
and what a prisoner.
- 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 9:
- The doctor is the modern master of the mythological realm, the knower of all the secret ways and words of potency.
- The ability or capacity to perform something
- (of alcoholic drinks, of drugs) Concentration; strength
- Potentiality, ability, capacity.
- (mathematics, dated) Cardinality.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
strength
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power
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