Potential

<h2 id="etymology">Etymology</h2>
“Potential” comes from the Latin word potentialis, from potentia = might, force, power, and hence ability, faculty, capacity, authority, influence. From the verb posse = to be able, to have power. From the adjective potis = able, capable. (The old form of the verb was a compound of the adjective and the verb “to be”, e.g. for possum it was potis sum, etc.) The Latin word potis is cognate with the Sanskrit word patis = “lord”.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a>
Several languages have a <a href="/facts/Potential_mood/b9kztzFa">potential mood</a>, a grammatical construction which indicates that something is in a potential as opposed to actual state. These include <a href="/facts/Finnish_language/lBuEIgs0">Finnish</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> <a href="/facts/Japanese_language/EEv485a5">Japanese</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> and <a href="/facts/Sanskrit/ychfjhlx">Sanskrit</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a>

<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>

Wikiquote has quotations related to Potential.

Look up potential in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

<ul><li><a href="/facts/Potential_difference/EN2po6N2">Potential difference</a> (voltage)</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Potential_energy/I03KLbmn">Potential energy</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Water_potential/ndU4I5Hz">Water potential</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Giorgio Agamben, Opus Dei: An Archaeology of Duty (2013), p. 46. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=yVYTAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=yVYTAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Sachs, Joe (2005), "Aristotle: Motion and its Place in Nature", Internet Encyclopedia of PhilosophySachs (2005) <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-mot/" target="_blank">http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-mot/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Lenhard, Johannes; Stephan, Simon; Hasse, Hans (June 2024). "On the History of the Lennard-Jones Potential". Annalen der Physik. 536 (6). doi:10.1002/andp.202400115. ISSN 0003-3804. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/andp.202400115" target="_blank">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/andp.202400115</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Fischer, Johann; Wendland, Martin (October 2023). "On the history of key empirical intermolecular potentials". Fluid Phase Equilibria. 573: 113876. Bibcode:2023FlPEq.57313876F. doi:10.1016/j.fluid.2023.113876. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.fluid.2023.113876" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.fluid.2023.113876</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Nitzke, Isabel; Stephan, Simon; Vrabec, Jadran (2024-06-03). "Topology of thermodynamic potentials using physical models: Helmholtz, Gibbs, Grand, and Null". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 160 (21). Bibcode:2024JChPh.160u4104N. doi:10.1063/5.0207592. ISSN 0021-9606. PMID 38828811. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0207592" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0207592</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Clemens Niemi, A Finnish Grammar (1917), p. 27. <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Tatui Baba, An Elementary Grammar of the Japanese Language (1888), p. 18. <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Ratnakar Narale, Sanskrit for English Speaking People (2004), p. 332. <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Potential open-in-new

Potential