- Impotency
- Impotence Im"po*tence, Impotency Im"po*ten*cy, n. [L.
impotenia inability, poverty, lack of moderation. See
{Impotent}.]
1. The quality or condition of being impotent; lack of
strength or power, animal, intellectual, or moral;
weakness; feebleness; inability; imbecility.
[1913 Webster]
Some were poor by impotency of nature; as young fatherless children, old decrepit persons, idiots, and cripples. --Hayward. [1913 Webster]
O, impotence of mind in body strong! --Milton. [1913 Webster]
2. Lack of self-restraint or self-control. [R.] --Milton. [1913 Webster]
3. (Law & Med.) Lack of procreative power; inability to copulate, or beget children; also, sometimes, sterility; barrenness; specifically, in males: the inability to achieve or sustain a penile erection; erectile dysfunction. [1913 Webster +PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
