▪ I. potence1
(ˈpəʊtəns)
[a. OF. potence, ad. L. potentia power, f. potent-em, pres. pple. of posse to be powerful or able: see -ence.]
1. Power, ability, strength; = potency 1.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxvi. 72 That he ne may it knowen as in potence that is kyndely power. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. x. 472 Tha quha onie did excel in wisdome, or potence. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. iv. 22 His Potence, Prevalence, and Interest among the Canaanites. 1767 Mrs. S. Pennington Lett. III. 153 That there is any other being,..in the universe, which withstands the potence of God. 1850 Mrs. Browning Seraphim i. 156 Where the blind matter brings An awful potence out of impotence. 1854 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Resources Wks. (Bohn) III. 196 Men are made up of potences. |
b. = potency 1 b.
| 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. vi. 112 And through thy frame the liquour's potence fling. |
c. Sexual power.
| 1885 Law Rep. 10 Appeal Cases 173 She..averred..that he was impotent at the date of the ceremony... The appellant averred his potence. |
2. Degree of power or intensity.
| 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. xii. (1882) 135, I shall venture to use potence, in order to express a specific degree of a power, in imitation of the Algebraists. 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1870) II. xxv. 120 Derivative from the principle in its lower potence or degree. 1863 Masson in Reader 26 Sept. 335/2 This, then, is the first ‘potence’, as the Germans would call it, of that self-culture which consists in the control of thought by and within itself. |
▪ II. potence2
(ˈpəʊtəns)
Forms: 8 potans, (portance), 8–9 pot(t)ance, 6– potence.
[a. F. potence a crutch (12th c in Hatz.-Darm.), also applied to various T- or Γ-shaped objects, as a gibbet, an armorial charge, a tactical formation, the potence of a watch, ad. L. potentia power, potence1, in med.L. a support (?), crutch. In sense 3, often written pot(t)ance. See potent n.1]
† 1. a. A cross or gibbet. Obs.
| c 1500 Melusine 117 There is the potence or cros wheron the good thef Dysmas was crucefyed whan our lord was nayled to the Cros for our redempcion. 1571 Satir. Poems Reform. xxviii. 215 And, as I past, the Potence I espy, Quhair the anoyntit Bischop hung to dry. 1816 Keatinge Trav. I. 80 note, One feature disfigures the landscape [in Catalonia]; the potence. The gallows appears on every hill. |
b. Engineering. A supporting framework formed like a gallows.
| 1853 Sir H. Douglas Milit. Bridges (ed. 3) 362 A vertical frame, forming a potence, or gallows, was fixed upon each of the horizontal frames, with two iron rollers on the summits, over which the two suspension cables were passed. |
2. Watchmaking. A stud screwed to the top plate in which is made the bearing for the lower pivot of the verge; hence, any stud or fixture supporting a bearing. counter-potence, a stud in which the upper pivot of the verge plays.
| 1678 Lond. Gaz. No. 1286/4 The Counter pottance [mispr. pettance] hath a tail that goeth a quarter of a circle. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Potans, or Potence, a Part of a Watch. 1705 Derham in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 318 One of these drilled stones they fix in the cock, the other in the bottom of the portance only to carry the ballance. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Watch-work, The potence, or pottance, which is the strong stud in pocket-watches, whereon the lower pivot of the verge plays. 1792 Trans. Soc. Arts X. 219 Supported by two counter pottances upon the upper plate. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 503 The potence,..and small or counter potence.., that hold the pivots of the balance-wheel, are small cocks seen in fig. 502,..and are screwed to the top or upper plate within the frame. 1885 Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 329/1 Take the potence, and..screw it in its place upon the top plate. |
¶ 3. Erron. for potent (potent n.1 1). Obs.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 24/1 The Crutch is of some termed..a Crich, but more usually a Crutch Staff, which by Old Sir Geffrey Chaucer, was called a Potence. |
4. A military formation, in which a line is thrown out at right angles to the main body.
| 1759 Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. 40/2 The left of the English..was formed to prevent that design in a manner which the military men call Potence, that is, in a body which presents two faces to the enemy. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xviii. viii. (1872) VII. 243 Friedrich's line..shoots⁓out in mysterious Prussian rhythm, in echelons, in potences, obliquely down the Janus-Hill side. |
5. (See quot. 1887.)
| 1887 Jrnl. R. Archæol. Inst. XLIV. 112 The Circular [culverhouses] were provided with a revolving machine, called a potence, by which all the nests could be conveniently got at in turn. 1978 Erddig (National Trust) 7 The building, shown on an estate plan of 1739, is complete with its potence (the revolving arm supporting the ladder needed to collect eggs and squabs) and several pairs of nesting fantails. |
6. attrib. in sense 2, as potence file, potence hole.
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 214 The size of the potence file most generally used is four inches long. Ibid. 280 The body or arbor of the verge..viewed through the follower potance hole should be seen crossing the balance wheel hole of the dovetail. |