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impuissance. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
impuissance, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
impuissance in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
impuissance you have here. The definition of the word
impuissance will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
impuissance, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French impuissance.
Noun
impuissance (usually uncountable, plural impuissances)
- Impotence, weakness.
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes , book II, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:This fault, for a man not to be able to know himselfe betimes, and not to feele the impuissance and extreme alteration, that age doth naturally bring, […] hath lost the reputation of the most part of the greatest men in the world.
1603, Plutarch, “Of the Fortune or Vertue of King Alexander. The Second Oration.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals , London: Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 1275:ll which things, bring perill to thoſe that know not how to uſe them well; and neither honour and credit, nor puiſſance, but rather argue their feebleneſse and impuiſſance.
French
Etymology
From in- + puissance (or possibly from impuissant + -ance).
Pronunciation
Noun
impuissance f (plural impuissances)
- impotency, helplessness
- erectile dysfunction
Further reading