in potentiaadv.

1600 Abp. G. Abbot Expos. Prophet Ionah ix. 192 If we will speake as Philosophers, the sonne is said to be in potentia of the father.

1601 A. Copley Answere to Let. Jesuited Gentleman 26 No compleate head in esse but only in potentia.

1612 B. Jonson Alchemist ii. iii. sig. E, The Egg's..a Chicken, in Potentia . View more context for this quotation

1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge vi. 170 Gods bare Essence must be forthwith or actu, but his everlasting Essence..must be forth-coming or in potentia.

1797 Encycl. Brit. XV. 441/2 Potential, in the schools, is used to denote and distinguish a kind of qualities, which are supposed to exist in the body in potentia only.

1845 Amer. Whig Rev. Sept. 268/2 A thing exists potentially, or in potentia, when it is possible only.

1882 Catholic World July 468 For whether in the elements or in the water, it is merely something in potentia, to be such or such a substance.

1948 Mind 42 486 When I claim to know I simply make emphatic that I am logically committed, in potentia, in certain determinate ways.

1957 L. Durrell Justine i. 75 Life, the new material, is only lived in potentia until the artist deploys it in his work.

1997 B. Morrow Giovanni's Gift i. 31 Ash Creek..has remained for me a kind of blessed sanctuary, a refuge in potentia, an asylum to which I might retreat whenever my life had gotten, well, impossible.