potestat

Catalan

Noun

potestat f (plural potestats)

1. power
   • 2016 October, “Un exconseller de CCOO nega les despeses atribuïdes per les 'black'”, in El Periódico‎^[1]:

     Benito ha explicat que va rebre la seva targeta de mans del llavors secretari del consell d'administració, Enrique de la Torre, i que la potestat per decidir sobre les targetes i els límits de despesa d'aquestes corresponia al president de l'entitat, Miguel Blesa.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• potestate

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French potestat, from Latin potestās, potestātem. Doublet of pouste.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpɔːtɛsˈtaːt/, /ˈpɔːtɛstaːt/

Noun

potestat (plural potestates)

1. A powerful individual; a ruler or potentate.
   • 1387–1400, [Geoffrey] Chaucer, “The Somnours Tale”, in The Tales of Caunt́bury (Hengwrt Chaucer; Peniarth Manuscript 392D), Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: National Library of Wales, published [c. 1400–1410], →OCLC, folio 81, recto:

     Whilom / ther was an Irous poteſtat / As seith Senek that durynge his eſtat / vp on a day / out ryden knyghtes two […]

     Once there was an irate potentate, / as Seneca says, and during his rule, / two knights rode out one day […]

   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[2], published c. 1410, Epheſianes 6:12, page 77r, column 2; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     foꝛwhi ftryuynge is not to us aȝenes fleiſch ⁊ blood .· but aȝenes þe pꝛincis ⁊ poteſtatis, aȝenes gouernours of þe woꝛld of þeſe derkneſſis / aȝens ſpiritual þingis of wickidneſſe, in heuenli thingis

     Because for us, striving isn't [just] against flesh and blood, but against princes and potentates, the rulers of these darknesses' world, and the sources of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.

2. (theology) A power (rank of angel).

Descendants

• English: potestate (obsolete)

References

• “potestāt(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.