potis

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *pótis (“owner, master, host, husband”). Cognate with Ancient Greek πόσις (pósis), Sanskrit पति (páti).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) MFA^(ključ): /ˈpo.tis/, [ˈpɔ.t̪ɪs]

Adjective

potis m or f (neuter potis or pote)

1. able, capable, possible
   • Cicero letters to Atticus with an English translation by E. O. Winstedt- In three volumes, I, 1912, page 302–303 containing Ciceronis epistulae ad Atticum, IV, XIII:

     Sed mehercule velim res istas et praesentem statum rei publicae, et quo animo consules ferant hunc σκυλμόν, scribas ad me quantum pote.

     But I hope to goodness you will write me as full a description as possible of that affair and of the present state of politics and tell me how the consuls are taking all this pother.

Inflection

Rarely inflected in the positive sense and then only by gender with potis for masculine and feminine gender and pote for neuter gender..

• comparative: potior, superlative: potissimus

Derived terms

• compos
• impos
• possideō
• possum
• potestās
• potiō
• potior

References

• “potis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “potis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• potis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for schools and colleges founded on comparative grammar, 1903, page 54: "Potis is often used as an indeclinable adjective, but sometimes has pote in the neuter."
• Varro on the Latin language with an English translation by Roland G. Kent. In two volumes, I, books V.–VII., 1938, page 54–55 containing Marcus Terentius Varro's de lingual latina V, X, 58:

  Terra enim et Caelum, ut <Sa>mothracum¹ initia docent, sunt dei magni, et hi quos dixi multis nominibus, non quas <S>amo<th>racia² ante portas statuit duas virilis species aeneas dei magni,³ neque ut volgus putat, hi Samothraces dii, qui Castor et Pollux, sed hi mas et femina et hi quos Augurum Libri scriptos habent sic "divi potes,"⁴ pro illo quod Samothraces θεοὶ δυνατοί.⁵

  ¹ Laetus, for mothracum.   ² Laetus, for ambracia.   ³ Laetus, for imagini.   ⁴ Laetus, for diui qui potes.   ⁵ Aug., for ΤΗεΟεδΥΝΑΤΟε.

  For Earth and Sky, as the mysteries of the Samothracians^a teach, are Great Gods, and these whom I have mentioned under many names, are not those Great Gods whom Samothrace^b represents by two male statues of bronze which she has set up before the city-gates, nor are they, as the populace thinks, the Samothracian gods,^c who are really Castor and Pollux; but these are a male and a female, these are those whom the Books of the Augurs^d mention in writing as "potent deities," for what the Samothracians call "powerful gods."

  ^a Mystic rites in honour of the Cabiri.   ^b An island in the northern Aegean, off the coast of Thrace.   ^c The Cabiri, popularly identified with Castor and Pollux, since they were all youthful male deities to whom protective powers were attributed.   ^d Page 16 Regell.