potence

Borrowed from Old French potence (“power, a crutch”), from Latin potentia (“power, in Medieval Latin also crutch”), from potens (“powerful”); see potent.

potence (countable and uncountable, plural potences)

1. power or strength; potency
2. A stud that acts as a support of a pivot in a watch or clock
3. (heraldry) Synonym of crutch

• idempotence
• nilpotence
• unipotence

• potency
• potent
• potentate
• potential
• potentiality

• potence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• potence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• pet cone

Latin potis

• IPA^(key): [ˈpotɛnt͡sɛ]
• Rhymes: -ɛntsɛ

potence f

1. potency

• potence in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• potence in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

From Old French, borrowed from Latin potentia.

• IPA^(key): /pɔ.tɑ̃s/

• Audio (Paris)

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• Audio

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potence f (plural potences)

1. (construction) post and braces
2. gallows, gibbet (for hanging)
3. stem (component on a bicycle)

Beware that this is a false friend, meaning “gallows” (or similar wooden constructions), not “strength”, from the Middle Latin meaning “crutch” of potentia.

• gibet

• gibier de potence

• “potence” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• écopent