English
impotence
Impotence comes from Latin impotentia ‘poverty’, from impotēns ‘weak", "powerless", "unbridled’, and ultimately from potēns ‘being able (to), able’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpotēns‘being able (to), able’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpotēns‘weak", "powerless", "unbridled’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpotentia‘poverty’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600impotence
- Englishearliest quotation 1671same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpotēns‘being able (to), able’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpotēns‘weak", "powerless", "unbridled’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEimpotentia‘poverty’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600impotence
- Englishearliest quotation 1671same form
Earliest quotation: 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes, […].: “O impotence of mind, in body ſtrong!”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pótis ‘master, ruler’
through Proto-Italic *potis ‘master, in control of’
possibility, impossible, 3 more
through Latin potēns ‘being able (to), able’
Today it means
noun Powerlessness; incapacity.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin potēns / impotence