potence means power or strength; potency. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “potence” is a great word
POTENCE — [Noun] Physical power or strength; also, a post or stud acting as the support for a pivot in a watch or clock mechanism. From Middle French potence ("power, a crutch"), from Latin potentia ("power; in Medieval Latin also crutch"), from potens ("powerful"). First attested in English in the early 15th century. Unlike "potency," which implies a latent capacity for effect, often biological, or "puissance," which suggests majestic or formidable influence, potence is the unadorned fact of strength, the brute pivot-point. It is the iron stanchion anchoring a bridge, the worn crutch bearing weight without complaint, and the silent, fixed pin around which the delicate gears of time revolve—the humble, necessary fulcrum without which all potential motion ceases.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French potence (“power, a crutch”), from Latin potentia (“power, in Medieval Latin also crutch”), from potens (“powerful”); see potent.
noun
- Power or strength; potency.
- A stud that acts as a support of a pivot in a watch or clock.