different between gallows vs potence

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??æl??z/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??ælo?z/
• (US, dialectal) IPA^(key): /??æl?s/

Etymology 1

From Middle English galwes, galewes, galowe, galwe, from Old English ?ealga, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *??alg?-, *??alg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). Compare West Frisian galge, Dutch galg, German Galgen, Danish galge, Icelandic gálgi.

Noun

gallows (plural gallows or gallowses)

1. Wooden framework on which persons are put to death by hanging. [from 1300s]
2. (colloquial, obsolete) A wretch who deserves to be hanged.
3. (printing, obsolete) The rest for the tympan when raised.
4. (colloquial, obsolete) Suspenders; braces.
5. Any contrivance with posts and crossbeam for suspending objects.
   • 1971, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather (screenplay, third draft)

     Lit by the moonlight through the window, he can see a FIGURE in the hospital bed alone in the room, and under a transparent oxygen tent. […] Tubes hang from a steel gallows beside the bed, and run to his nose and mouth.

6. The main frame of a beam engine.

Synonyms

• (wooden framework used for hanging): gallows tree, gallow tree, hanging tree, gibbet

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

gallows

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of gallow

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French potence (“power, a crutch”), from Latin potentia (“power, in Medieval Latin also crutch”), from potens (“powerful”); see potent.

Noun

potence (countable and uncountable, plural potences)

1. power or strength; potency
2. A stud that acts as a support of a pivot in a watch or clock
3. (heraldry) Synonym of crutch

Derived terms

• idempotence
• nilpotence
• unipotence

Related terms

• potency
• potent
• potentate
• potential
• potentiality

Further reading

• potence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• potence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• pet cone

Czech

Etymology

Latin potis

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?pot?nt?s?]
• Rhymes: -?nts?

Noun

potence f

1. potency

Related terms

Further reading

• potence in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• potence in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

French

Etymology

From Old French, borrowed from Latin potentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?.t??s/

Noun

potence f (plural potences)

1. (construction) post and braces
2. gallows, gibbet (for hanging)
3. stem (component on a bicycle)

Usage notes

Beware that this is a false friend, meaning “gallows” (or similar wooden constructions), not “strength”, from the Middle Latin meaning “crutch” of potentia.

Synonyms

• gibet

Derived terms

• gibier de potence

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• écopent