potencyn.
/ˈpəʊtnsi/, U.S. /ˈpoʊtnsi/ 1.
a. Power, powerfulness; ability to accomplish or affect something; authority, influence.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > power > [noun]
i-waldeOE
armOE
craftOE
mightOE
poustiea1275
mound?a1300
powerc1300
force1303
mighta1325
wielda1325
mightiheada1382
mightinessc1390
mightheada1400
mightinga1400
puissance1420
mightfulnessa1425
vallente1475
potence1483
state1488
potencya1500
potestation?c1500
potent1512
puissantness1552
sinew1560
puissancy1562
potentness1581
powerableness1591
powerfulnessc1595
potestatea1600
pollency1623
potentiality1627
potentialness1668
poust1827
mana1843
magnum force1977
the world > action or operation > ability > [noun] > strong or powerful
craftOE
strengthOE
powerc1300
forcec1340
foisona1400
ability?1473
potence1483
potencya1500
valency1623
potentiality1627
potentialness1668
muscularity1871
firepower1945
the world > action or operation > advantage > efficacy > [noun] > great or ability to affect strongly
mighteOE
power1612
potency1759
a1500 (a1450) tr. Secreta Secret. (Ashm. 396) (1977) 48 (MED) Ther is no way to do no thyng by..but only by myght and potencie, And potencie [L. potencia] is not had but by helthe.
1539 King Henry VIII Let. to T. Wyatt Nov. in T. Wyatt Wks. (1816) (modernized text) II. App. 517 Being the end and victory not in the multitude and potency, but in the hand of God.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) ii. ii. 69 I would to heauen I had your potencie, And you were Isabell. View more context for this quotation
1654 E. Nicholas Papers (1892) II. 114 It wilbe a very great infamy and unbefittinge the potency of yt crowne.
1663 A. Wood Life & Times (1891) I. 473 Dr..Erbury was turned out of his fellowship of Magd. Coll. by the potency of Dr..Pierce the president.
1759 W. Mason Caractacus 64 By the dread potency of every Star..We do adjure thee.
1789 T. Jefferson Let. 15 Mar. in Papers (1958) XIV. 660 Experience proves the inefficacy of a bill of rights. True. But tho it is not absolutely efficacious under all circumstances, it is of great potency always.
1826 J. F. Cooper Last of Mohicans I. x. 140 Anxious to know the worst, and willing, in such an emergency, to try the potency of his wealth, he overcame his reluctance to speak to Magua.
1850 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire II. xxi. 478 The renowned name became at once a charm of magic potency.
1884 Law Times 1 Mar. 315/1 The decision..has likewise a tendency to limit the potency of garnishee procedure.
1929 R. S. Lynd & H. M. Lynd Middletown xxiv. 436 Some people believe..in carrying copper wire about the wrist..to prevent rheumatism..or in the magical potency of flannel.
1957 V. Packard Hidden Persuaders xv. 159 The potency of television in conditioning youngsters to be loyal enthusiasts of a product..became indisputable early in the fifties.
1992 Independent 7 Apr. 22/1 The failure of the Treasury to understand the potency of the forces unleashed by financial deregulation.
b. Ability to achieve erection or ejaculation in sexual intercourse; virility. Also: fertility (of a male or female). Cf. impotence n. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > [noun] > sexual potency or vigour
ability?1473
Lusty Juventus1582
virility1598
mettle1612
manhood1640
potency1739
potence1875
lead in one's pencil1941
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual activity > [noun] > orgasm > ability to have
potency1901
1739 Ladies Physical Directory (ed. 7) 65 The Parts should be well anointed, or bathed with the Stimulating Balm every Night and Morning, and Coition not be used, or attempted, till Potency or strong Erection is regained.
1772 N. D. Falck Treat. Venereal Dis. i. i. 5 It is now sufficiently proved, both in men and brutes, that potency and vigour is not the least impaired by the possession of one [testicle] only.
1867 R. H. Gross Compar. Materia Medica 192 Sexual desire weak... Sexual desire changing, with diminished potency.
1901 F. R. Sturgis Sexual Debility in Man x. 293 My patient was..an ardent admirer of women, in whose company he indulged himself freely with perfect potency.
1929 G. R. Scott Sex & its Mysteries xii. 110 Nor does general disease affect woman's potency.
1966 Listener 10 Mar. 352/1 It may..be true to say that young men use the car or motor-cycle as a potency symbol.
1995 Daily Tel. 25 Oct. 18/5 Reich..not only developed theories of orgastic potency and sex-economy, but also founded Sexpol, a sexual-political movement.
2. A person or body wielding power or influence; a power. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > power > [noun] > powerful person or body
powerc1384
potencyc1607
potent1631
puissant1679
strength1711
c1607 T. Sherley Discours Turkes (1936) 27 The Spanish..potencye in Itali. The Kinge of Spayne is in Itali itself farre to potente for all the other states of Itali, meerelye of himselfe as an Italian prince.
1645 W. Ball Tractatus de Jure Regnandi 18 We may give, or Render too much to Cæsar, or Cæsars, Potentates or Potencies.
a1677 I. Barrow Treat. Pope's Supremacy in Wks. (1741) I. v. 669 Before his time the Roman Episcopacy had advanced it self beyond the priesthood into a potency.
1887 C. J. Abbey Eng. Church & Bishops I. 119 A firm believer in ghosts, witches, fairies, and such other supernatural potencies.
2005 Africa News (Nexis) 16 June We know that the Republic of Cuba is a potency in terms of scientific ‘know how’ and in the landmark of the co-operation ties that unite us.
3.
a. Power to affect a person physically; strength; degree of concentration (of an active ingredient).Used esp. of alcoholic drinks.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > [noun] > intoxicating element in drink
strengtha1325
mightinessa1530
headiness1603
potency1637
spirit(s) of wine1646
alcohol1742
wine-spirit1753
alc.1840
potence1871
the world > action or operation > advantage > efficacy > [noun] > great or ability to affect strongly > specific physically
potency1637
1637 J. Taylor Drinke & Welcome (title page) An especiall declaration of the potency, vertue, and operation of our English Ale.
1703 W. Salmon Collectanea Medica iv. 492 It is indeed a most efficacious Specifick against the Dropsie Sarcites, or Anasarka, by reason of its Potency in opening all the Urinary Passages.
1786 S. Henley tr. W. Beckford Arabian Tale 55 Suffocated by the potency of their exhalations, she was forced to quit the gallery.
1849 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. xviii. 163 You would have thought..the very horse..was affected by the potency of the drink.
a1862 H. D. Thoreau Cape Cod (1865) v. 86 In the course of the evening I began to feel the potency of the clam which I had eaten, and I was obliged to confess to our host that I was no tougher than the cat he told of.
1964 C. Davey Cornish Holiday ii. 20 The potency of the drink sold in the innumerable public houses in Downlong.
1982 Jrnl. Allergy & Clin. Immunol. 70 343 A quantitative skin-test assay of allergenic potency was developed and tested on 28 allergic patients.
1992 F. McLynn Hearts of Darkness iii. xii. 264 The story of the Sudanese, who had drunk their way from the Nile to the heart of Africa, being overcome by the potency of plantain beer, rings false.
b. Homeopathy. The degree of dilution of a drug, esp. as a measure of its efficacy (a high dilution typically being regarded as more efficacious).
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the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > [noun] > qualities of medicines > degree of dilution
potency1846
1833 J. B. Gilchrist Pract. Appeal 54 Homœopathic medicines, extreme, attenuated, and minimissimised, acquire a potency in the inverse ratio of their attenuation and diminution.]
1846 C. J. Hempel Homœopathic Domest. Physician p. vii Homœopathic drugs have now been potentialized up to the 200th and many of them up to 300th, 400th, 500th. etc., until the 2000th potency.
1899 N. Amer. Rev. Mar. 351 Mrs. Eddy seems to have been a homeopathist of the ‘high potency’ faction, and to have been led by recognizing the medical inertness of high attenuations to her present theories.
1906 Homœopathic Recorder Apr. 183 From this tinctures of ever-augmenting potency (where disease is concerned) can be prepared.
1991 S. Gibson & R. Gibson Homoeopathy for Everyone (new ed.) vii. 98 By the simple laws of dilution, solutions beyond the 12C potency should have no activity whatsoever, and yet clinically they can be shown to have an effect.
2003 D. Gordon in M. Carlston Classical Homeopathy vii. 116 It is usually true that a correctly chosen remedy will act and be helpful in any potency; often the different potencies affect only the duration of action.
c. Pharmacology. The power or strength of a drug, esp. as measured by the amount needed to produce a certain intensity of effect.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > [noun] > qualities of medicines > strength of drug
mainOE
potency1902
1902 Idaho Daily Statesman 12 Nov. 3/7 The issues of life and death depend on the potency of a drug sometimes—oftener than we are apt to think. When our physician prescribes a remedy he expects certain results; if the remedy supplied be lacking in purity or strength, it may fail in its purpose.
1933 Med. Res. Council Special Rep. Ser. No. 183. 25 An approximate estimate of the potency of a preparation can be obtained by administering a series of doses, each to a single animal.
1978 F. F. Cowan Pharmacol. for Dental Hygienist ii. 18 The position of graded dose-response curve along the dose axis is a measure of the drug's potency, i.e., how much of the drug it takes to produce a certain intensity of response... The maximum effect, or efficacy, of a drug is of greater clinical interest.
1991 Lancet 9 Feb. 346/1 The biological activity, potency, of different drug molecules varies widely.
d. Genetics. The degree to which an allele affects a phenotypic character.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > genetic constitution > [noun] > phenotype > phenotypic effects
potency1916
pleiotropism1927
position effect1930
penetrance1934
pleiotropy1938
complementation1958
1905 Publ. Carnegie Inst. No. 23. 59 From these cases it seems clear that the production of partial-rough young was due to some unusual potency of the gametes bearing the smooth character.]
1916 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2 53 The appearance of gynandromorphism in certain crosses found its right explanation in the hypothesis of a quantitatively different behavior or a different potency of the male sex-factors in the different races.
1944 Genetics 29 528 Using the morphological guide of bristle length..we might assign to gene bc a potency of about 34, bd a potency of 50,..and bf of 54.
1955 R. B. Goldschmidt Theoret. Genetics iii. v. 368 The potencies thus discovered..turned out to be of the orderly type, that is, acting like dosage and thus acting in different combinations in an orderly and parallel way.
4.
a. Potential, potentiality, possibility; capability of development or of becoming.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > possibility > [noun] > capacity for development
potentiality1625
potency1644
susceptibility1644
susception1656
capacity1659
capableness1731
capability1794
achievability1909
1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 4 Books..doe contain a potencie of life in them to be as active as that soule was whose progeny they are.
1645 S. Rutherford Tryal & Trivmph of Faith (1845) vi. 72 A plant is a tree in the potency.
1874 J. Tyndall Addr. Brit. Assoc. 55 I..discern in that Matter..the promise and potency of all terrestrial life.
1889 F. E. Willard Glimpses of Fifty Years 536 The potency of every good thing ever learned by him..was all wrought, in the alembic of his memory, into new forms and combinations.
2000 J. Kronen & J. Reedy in tr. J. Suarez On Formal Cause Substance 12 The actualization of matter's potency to be something, say a pig, is nothing other than the very constitution of the composite substance of a pig.
b. Embryology. Capacity for differentiation; an instance of this; an ability to develop into a particular type of tissue or organ. Cf. pluripotency n., totipotency n. at totipotent adj. Derivatives.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > embryo or fetus > embryo parts > [noun] > embryo tissue > capacity for development
potency1908
1908 F. R. Lillie Devel. of Chick 9 A very important property of primordia in many animals is their capacity for subdivision, each part retaining the potencies of the whole.
1926 J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. 263 The potency of forming limbs is confined to a definite area of the flank.
1958 B. M. Patten Found. Embryol. v. 108 If an area where a particular potency has been located is exposed in more detail, it is found that there is a certain central part of it from which practically all the explants exhibit the potency in question.
1992 In Vitro Cellular & Devel. Biol. A. 28 348/1 Culture of vertebrate neural crest cells has made it possible to test their developmental potency under controlled conditions.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > energy or power of doing work > [noun] > degree of
strengthOE
intensivenessa1656
potencya1691
intensity1794
potence1817
energy level1902
power level1929
muscle1986
a1691 R. Boyle Gen. Hist. Air (1692) 97 To conclude readily, what potency the bubble has, by the change of the atmosphere's weight, acquired or lost.
1871 J. S. Blackie Four Phases Morals i. 71 The effects produced by this higher potency of the same force.
6. Mathematics. = power n.1 17.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > mathematical number or quantity > numerical arrangement > [noun] > set > property or measure of
power1903
potency1904
Lebesgue measure1929
1904 Proc. London Math. Soc. 1 245 It follows..by a theorem of Cantor's..that c is the potency of the simply ordered sets.
1906 W. H. Young & G. C. Young Theory of Sets of Points iv. 37 If the sets G1, G2,..are all equivalent, and γ be their number,..or their potency in the general case, the equation g = γg1 is substituted for the preceding equation [sc. g = g1 + g2 +..]; g is then called the product of the factors γ and g1.
1959 G. James & R. C. James Math. Dict. (ed. 2) 41/1 The cardinal number of a set is also called the potency of the set and the power of the set.
1965 Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 16 928 Marczewski and Sikorski have defined the separability character of a topological space to be the smallest element of the set of all cardinal numbers each of which is the potency of some basis for the open sets.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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