Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COM'PE-TENCE, or COM'PE-TEN-CY, n. [L. competens, competo, to be meet or fit; con and peto, to seek; properly, to press, urge or come to. Primarily, fitness; suitableness; convenience. Hence,]

1. Sufficiency; such a quantity as is sufficient; property or means of subsistence sufficient to furnish the necessaries and conveniences of life, without superfluity. Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, / Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. – Pope.
2. Sufficiency, applied to other things than property; but this application is less common.
3. Legal capacity or qualifications; fitness; as, the competence of a witness, which consists in his having the qualifications required by law, as age, soundness of mind, impartiality, &c.
4. Right or authority; legal power or capacity to take cognizance of a cause; as, the competence of a judge or court to examine and decide. – Kent.
5. Fitness; adequacy; suitableness; legal sufficiency; as the competency of evidence. – Sewall.