potestas

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *potistāts. Equivalent to potis + -tās.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /poˈtes.taːs/, [pɔˈt̪ɛs̠t̪äːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /poˈtes.tas/, [poˈt̪ɛst̪äs]

Noun

potestās f (genitive potestātis); third declension

1. power, ability
2. mastery, control
3. authority, jurisdiction
4. dominion, political power

   Synonyms: dicio, imperium, arbitrium, auctōritās

5. right, legal power
6. (of a word) meaning
7. possibility, opportunity

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	potestās	potestātēs
genitive	potestātis	potestātum
dative	potestātī	potestātibus
accusative	potestātem	potestātēs
ablative	potestāte	potestātibus
vocative	potestās	potestātēs

Derived terms

• potestātīvus
• TRP

 

Descendants

• Italian: potestà
  • ⇒ Italian: podestà
    • → English: podesta
• Old French: poesté, podestet, pousté (La Vie de Saint Alexis, 11^th century manuscripts, Anglo-Norman, respectively)
  • → Middle English: pouste, pousty, powste, poweste, puste, poste, pooste, poostye, pauste
    • English: poustie
    • Scots: poustie
    • Yola: poustee
• → Albanian: pushtet
• → Catalan: postestat
• → Portuguese: potestade, podestade
• → Spanish: potestad
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *potestāre
  • Italian: podestare
  • Old French: poëster
  • → Albanian: pushtoj, poshtroj, pështroj — dialectal

References

• “potestas”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “potestas”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• potestas in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• potestas in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • power over life and death: potestas vitae necisque
    
  • to be in a person's power: in manu, in potestate alicuius situm, positum esse
    
  • to give a man the opportunity of doing a thing: potestatem, copiam alicui dare, facere with Gen. gerund.
    
  • to deprive a man of the chance of doing a thing: facultatem, potestatem alicui eripere, adimere
    
  • to give audience to some one: sui potestatem facere, praebere alicui
    
  • despotic, tyrannous rule: potestas immoderata, infinita
    
  • to give up, lay down office (usually at the end of one's term of office): de potestate decedere
    
  • he has power over life and death: potestatem habet in aliquem vitae necisque (B. G. 1. 16. 5)
    
  • to give up one's person and all one's possessions to the conqueror: se suaque omnia permittere victoris potestati
    
  • to surrender oneself to the discretion of some one: se permittere in fidem atque in potestatem alicuius (B. G. 2. 3)
    
  • to offer battle to the enemy: potestatem, copiam pugnandi hostibus facere
    
  • to accept battle: potestatem sui facere (alicui) (cf. sect. XII. 9, note audientia...)
    
  • to reduce a country to subjection to oneself: populum in potestatem suam redigere (B. G. 2. 34)
    
  • to make oneself master of a people, country: populum, terram suo imperio, suae potestati subicere (not sibi by itself)
    
  • to make one's submission to some one: in alicuius potestatem se permittere
    
  • to be subject to some one, under some one's dominion: in potestate, in dicione alicuius esse
    
• “potestas”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• potestas in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “potestas”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin