Impotence, Impotency, n.
Etymology: [L. impotenia inability, poverty, want of moderation. See Impotent.]
1. The quality or condition of being impotent; want of strength or power, animal, intellectual, or moral; weakness; feebleness; inability; imbecility. Some were poor by impotency of nature; as young fatherless children, old decrepit persons, idiots, and cripples. Hayward. O, impotence of mind in body strong! Milton.
2. Want of self-restraint or self-control. [R.] Milton.
3. (Law & Med.)
Want of procreative power; inability to copulate, or beget children; also, sometimes, sterility; barrenness.
Shades of meaning
Fernald lists impotence only as an antonym, under power.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.
Synonyms
none given