potentia

Etymology

From potēns (“able, powerful”) +‎ -ia (“abstract noun suffix”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /poˈten.ti.a/, [pɔˈt̪ɛn̪t̪iä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /poˈten.t͡si.a/, [poˈt̪ɛnt̪͡s̪iä]

Noun

potentia f (genitive potentiae); first declension

1. force, power, might
2. ability, capacity
3. political power, authority, influence, sway
4. supreme dominion, sovereignty
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.359–360:

     ‘haec est, cui fuerat prōmissa potentia rērum,
     Iuppiter? hanc terrīs impositūrus erās?’

     “Is this [that city] to which had been promised the sovereignty of the world, O Jupiter? Is this [that city] you were about to impose [as a ruler] upon nations?”
     (Mars (mythology) is addressing Jupiter (mythology).)

5. (Medieval Latin) crutch, walking aid

Participle

potentia

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural of potēns

References

• “potentia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “potentia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "potentia", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• potentia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to acquire influence: opes, gratiam, potentiam consequi
    
  • (ambiguous) oligarchy: paucorum dominatio or potentia
    
• “potentia”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• potentia in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “potentia”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “potentia”, in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press