potent
pronunciation
How to pronounce potent in British English:
UK [ˈpəʊtnt]
How to pronounce potent in American English:
US [ˈpoʊtnt]
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- Adjective:
- having the power to influence or convince
- having or wielding force or authority
- having a strong physiological or chemical effect
- (of a male) able to copulate
Word Origin
- potent
- potent: [15] Latin posse (source of English posse and possible) meant ‘be able or powerful’. It was a conflation of an earlier verbal phrase potis esse ‘be able’. The precursor of posse was Old Latin *potēre, whose present participle potēns survived to become the present participle of posse. And its stem form potent- has given English potent, potentate [14], and potential [14]. Power also comes from *potēre.=> posse, possible, potentate, potential, power
- potent (adj.)
- early 15c., from Latin potentem (nominative potens) "powerful," present participle of *potere "be powerful," from potis "powerful, able, capable; possible;" of persons, "better, preferable; chief, principal; strongest, foremost," from PIE root *poti- "powerful, lord" (cognates: Sanskrit patih "master, husband," Greek posis, Lithuanian patis "husband"). Meaning "having sexual power" is first recorded 1899.
Antonym
Example
- 1. The threat of violence is a potent political lever .
- 2. Any threat to stop doing business with lenders is potent .
- 3. Many computers offload nongraphics tasks to potent graphics chips for speedier operation .
- 4. Medusa and perseus rapunzel and her prince all wrapped up in a potent little bundle .
- 5. Scottish chemist joseph black discovered and isolated this potent greenhouse gas in the 1750s .