potis

potis

1. inessive singular of pott

From Proto-Italic *potis, from Proto-Indo-European *pótis (“owner, master, host, husband”). Cognate with Albanian pata,^[1][2] Ancient Greek πόσις (pósis), Sanskrit पति (páti).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpɔ.tɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpɔː.tis]

potis / pote (comparative potior, superlative potissimus) (chiefly pre-classical or poetic)

1. (potis) able, capable
   • c. 211 BCE, Plautus, Rudens 68:

     Hunc [vidulum] homo feret a me nemo, ne tu te speres potis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 197 BCE, Plautus, Persa 580, (potis (for potes elsewhere) is only found in the Ambrosian palimpsest (A)):

     Atque aut hoc emptore vendes pulchre, aut alio non potis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 200 BCE – 190 BCE, Plautus, Captivi 88–90, (the reading potis is found in the codex vetus Camerarii, most editors give potest):

     Et hic quidem hercle, nisi qui colaphos perpeti
     potis parasitus frangique aulas in caput,
     [vel] ire extra portam Trigeminam ad saccum licet.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 194 BCE, Plautus, Poenulus 1.2.17–20:

     Sed vero duae [mulieres], sat scio, maxumo uni
     poplo cuilubet plus satis dare potis sunt,
     quae noctes diesque omni in aetate semper
     ornantur, lavantur, tergentur, poliuntur.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 200 BCE – 190 BCE, Plautus, Captivi 5.2.17:

     At ea subterfugere potis es pauca, si non omnia.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 206 BCE – 188 BCE, Plautus, Mercator 330–332:

     Hoc [filio] nunc mihi viso opust,
     huic persuadere quo modo potis siem,
     ut illam vendat neve det matri suae, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitryon 3.2.22:

     Potin ut abstineas manum?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, On the Latin Language 5.58:

     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.

     • Translation by Roland Grubb Kent. In two volumes, I, books V.–VII., 1938, page 54–55 containing Marcus Terentius Varro's de lingua latina V, X, 58:

       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.

   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.451–452:

     Coniunctum est id quod nusquam sine permitiali
     discidio potis est seiungi […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 11.148:

     at non Euandrum potis est uis ulla tenere

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (potis / pote) possible, feasible; (pote) it is possible

   quantum pote ― as soon as possible

   (post-classical) quam pote ― as much as possible

   • c. 197 BCE, Plautus, Persa 1.1.31–33:

     Si tu tibi bene esse
     pote pati, veni: vives mecum,
     basilico accipiere victu

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 35:

     Quid si hoc potis est ut tu taceas, ego loquar? ― Lepide, licet.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 189 BCE, Plautus, Truculentus 1.2.69–70, (also read as potest):

     Qui potis est, amabo, planius? Qui antehac amator summus
     habitu's, nunc ad amicam venis querimoniam deferre.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 186 BCE, Plautus, Aulularia 2.4.31–32:

     Censen talentum magnum exorari pote
     ab istoc sene ut det, qui fiamus liberi?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 165 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Hecyra 3.395–397:

     Nunc si potis est, Pamphile,
     maxume volo doque operam ut clam partus eveniat patrem
     atque adeo omnis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 3.1079:

     Certe equidem finis vitae mortalibus adstat
     nec devitari letum pote, quin obeamus.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 67.11:

     'Non (ita Caecilio placeam, cui tradita nunc sum)
     culpa mea est, quamquam dicitur esse mea,
     nec peccatum a me quisquam pote dicere quicquam: […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 68 BCE – 44 BCE, Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 4.13:

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

     • Translation by E. O. Winstedt, - In Letters to Atticus, in three volumes, I, 1912, pp. 302–303

       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.

   • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martial, Epigrammata 9.15:

     Inscripsit tumulis septem scelerata virorum
     'Se fecisse' Chloe. Quid pote simplicius?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• The form potis is used irrespective of gender, number or animacy; it is mainly found in the set phrase potis esse, “to be able”, “to be possible”.
• The form pote always means “possible”; it is most often used impersonally, alone with the meaning of potest, “it is possible”. pote est, “it is possible”, is seldom encountered.
• The syncopic potin (poti(s)-ne) means “are you able?”, “can you?”, but potis alone as “be able” is only found in a few manuscript. A nominative plural potēs is also found in Varro without any copula. See quotations.

See usage notes.

• “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."