different between commander vs potentate

English

Etymology

From Middle English comaundour, commaunder, comaunder, borrowed from Old French comandeor, cumandeur, from comander. See command.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k??mænd?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??m??nd?/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /k??mand?/

Noun

commander (plural commanders)

1. One who exercises control and direction of a military or naval organization.
2. A naval officer whose rank is above that of a lieutenant commander and below that of captain.
3. One who exercises control and direction over a group of persons.
4. A designation or rank in certain non-military organizations such as NASA and various police forces.
5. (obsolete) The chief officer of a commandry.
6. A heavy beetle or wooden mallet, used in paving, in sail lofts, etc.
7. A rank within an honorary order: e.g. Commander of the Legion of Honour.
8. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the Asian genus Moduza.

Derived terms

• commanderless
• commanderlike
• commanderly

Translations

French

Etymology

From Old French comander, from Vulgar Latin *command?re, from Latin commend?re, present active infinitive of commend?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.m??.de/
• Homophones: commandai, commandé, commandée, commandées, commandés, commandez

Verb

commander

1. to order (tell someone to do something)
2. to order (ask for a product)

Conjugation

Derived terms

• commandeur
• commandement

Related terms

• commande

Descendants

• ? Romanian: comanda

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English potentat, from Old French, from Late Latin potent?tus (“rule, political power”), from Latin pot?ns (“powerful, strong”), the active present participle of possum (“I am able”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p??.t?n.te?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?po?.t?n.te?t/

Noun

potentate (plural potentates)

1. A powerful leader; a monarch; a ruler.
   • 1592, Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, act iii, scene 2

     But Kings and mightie?t Potentates mu?t die,
     For that's the end of humane mi?erie.

   • 1900, Theodore Dreiser, "Sister Carrie"

     She was now one of a group of oriental beauties who, in the second act of the comic opera, were paraded by the vizier before the new potentate as the treasures of his harem.

2. A powerful polity or institution.
3. (derogatory) A self-important person.

Usage notes

This term usually carries connotations or implications of ancient despotism before advanced Western conceptions of civil law and Enlightenment values; in other words, a potentate can be described as a king or realm that exercises "raw", absolute power by decree and entrenched in "exotic" customs and traditions (cf. Orientalism). For example, a "Hindu potentate" would refer to those petty kings who controlled various small dominions in India before the British Raj. Particularly in the second sense, use of "potentate" to refer to Western states even before the modern era is rare, and may even be intended humorously in such a case.

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

potentate (comparative more potentate, superlative most potentate)

1. (obsolete) Regnant, powerful, dominant.