Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PO-TEN'TIAL, a. [L. potentialis.]

1. Having power to impress on us the ideas of certain qualities, though the qualities are not inherent in the thing; as, potential heat or cold. – Encyc.
2. Existing in possibility, not in act. This potential and imaginary materia prima, can not exist without form. – Ralegh.
3. Efficacious; powerful. [Not in use.] – Shak. Potential cautery, in surgery, is the destruction of vitality, and the production of an eschar in any part of the body by an alkaline or metallic salt, &c. instead of a red hot iron, the use of which is called actual cautery. – Encyc. Potential mode, in grammar, is that form of the verb which is used to express the power, possibility, liberty or necessity of an action or of being; as, I may go; he can write. This, in English, is not strictly a distinct mode, but the indicative or declarative mode, affirming the power to act, instead of the act itself. I may go or can go, are equivalent to, I have power to go.