impuissance

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French impuissance.

Noun

impuissance (usually uncountable, plural impuissances)

1. Impotence, weakness.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] 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:

     [A]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

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pɥi.sɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

impuissance f (plural impuissances)

1. impotency, helplessness
2. erectile dysfunction

Further reading

• “impuissance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.