This week's theme
Words to describe people

This week's words
voluble
intransigent
potentate
sophist
solicitous

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(POH-ten-tayt)

MEANING:

noun: One having great power, especially an autocratic person.

ETYMOLOGY:

Via French, from Latin posse (to be able). Ultimately from the Indo-European root poti- (powerful, lord), which is also the source of power, potent, possess, pasha, compossible, impuissance, and puissant. Earliest documented use: 1475.

USAGE:

"The company has always been good at finding oil, whether by discovering new fields deep beneath the ocean floor or by schmoozing potentates such as Libya's Colonel Muammar Qaddafi."
Stanley Reed; Refilling BP's Tank; BusinessWeek (New York); Jul 22, 2007.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: