| 释义 |
potentiality|pəʊtɛnʃɪˈælɪtɪ|
[ad. med.L. potentiālitās (Albertus Magnus, a 1250), f. potentiāl-is: see prec. and -ity. So F. potentialité.]
1. The quality of being powerful or having power: see potential a. 1.
1627Hakewill Apol. i. ii. 70 ‘Habent aliquid potentialitatis admixtum’, as Lyra speakes, they haue some kinde of potentiality (I know not how otherwise to render his word) mixed with them. 1656Hobbes Liberty, Necess. & Chance 266 Nor do I understand what derogation it can be to the Divine perfection, to attribute to it Potentiality, that is (in English) Power. 1820Coleridge Lett., Convers. etc. I. 133, I have the power, the potentiality of walking. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvii. 514 An unlimited and unimpaired potentiality of sovereignty.
2. esp. The state or quality of possessing latent power or capacity capable of development into activity; possibility of action or active existence: opposed to actuality: see potential a. 2.
1625Jackson Creed v. xiv. §2 That potentiality or aptitude which the soul hath to be linked, and made one substance with the body. 1653H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 11 By Earth you are to understand, the Potentiality or Capability of the Existence of the outward Creation. 1781Johnson Apr. in Boswell, We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice. 1855Bain Senses & Int. iii. i. §37 (1864) 378 The mental conception that we have of empty space, is scope for movement, the possibility or potentiality of moving. 1862Dana Man. Geol. 599 Characteristics before only foreshadowed, or existing only in potentiality, come out into full expression.
b. With a and pl. An instance of this quality; a capacity or possibility, or a condition, thing, or being in which it is embodied.
1668Howe Bless. Righteous (1825) 44 By the former it hath a potentiality, by the latter an habitude in reference thereunto. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxiii. §7 (1695) 160 In this looser sense, I crave leave to be understood, when I name any of these Potentialities amongst the simple Ideas, which we recollect in our Minds, when we think of particular Substances. 1855H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1872) II. viii. vi. 586 In the joy of liberty regained there are massed together the potentialities and gratifications in general. 1862― First Princ. i. ii. §11. 33 The self-creation of such a potential universe would involve over again the difficulties here stated—would imply behind this potential universe a more remote potentiality. 1875Encycl. Brit. II. 522/1 The seed is the potentiality of the plant. 1879Huxley Hume iii. 85 The conversion, by unknown causes, of these innate potentialities into actual existences.
3. Electr. = potential n. 4. rare.
1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 857 The individual, through whose body there is passing an electric current of not too high potentiality, generally experiences pain. |